walk through array with nested output in PHP

Question

I have this code:

foreach ($_POST as $key1 => $item1):
    if (is_array($item1)):
        foreach ($item1 as $key2 => $item2):
            if (is_array($item2)):
                foreach ($item2 as $key3 => $item3):
                    if (is_array($item3)):
                        foreach ($item3 as $key4 => $item4):
                            $_POST[$key1][$key2][$key3][$key4] = empty($item4) ? NULL : $item4;
                        endforeach;
                    else:
                        $_POST[$key1][$key2][$key3] = empty($item3) ? NULL : $item3;
                    endif;
                endforeach;
            else:
                $_POST[$key1][$key2] = empty($item2) ? NULL : $item2;
            endif;
        endforeach;
    else:
        $_POST[$key1] = empty($item1) ? NULL : $item1;
    endif;
endforeach;

$_POST is a 4 level array, array_walk() would return my array in first level (which I don't want).

The Question is how can I simplify this code with repeating blockes?

Can you show what you are trying to achieve, so what would be passed in and what is the expected output (a summary would do). — Nigel Ren
– Nigel Ren, Commented Jun 21, 2021 at 13:01
Please start by explaining what you need to achieve here, instead of just unloading your code. — C3roe
– C3roe, Commented Jun 21, 2021 at 13:18

Rob Ruchte · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-21 14:52:48Z

This is a job for recursion, most easily implemented here with array_walk_recursive.

Make sure that you understand what your code does though, empty returns true for zeros, which could be a problem.

$input = [
    'param1' => [
        'sub1_1' => [
            'sub1_1_1' => [
                'sub1_1_1_1' => 'foo',
                'sub1_1_1_2' => '',
                'sub1_1_1_3' => 0,
                'sub1_1_1_4' => 'bar',
                'sub1_1_1_5' => false,
                'sub1_1_1_6' => [
                    'sub1_1_1_6_1' => 'baz',
                    'sub1_1_1_6_2' => ''
                ]
            ]
        ]
    ]
];

array_walk_recursive($input, function(&$value)
{
    $value = (empty($value)) ? null:$value;
});

// Verify that false-y values were changed to null
assert($input['param1']['sub1_1']['sub1_1_1']['sub1_1_1_2']===null, 'Empty string should be normalized to null');
assert($input['param1']['sub1_1']['sub1_1_1']['sub1_1_1_3']===null, 'Zero should be normalized to null');
assert($input['param1']['sub1_1']['sub1_1_1']['sub1_1_1_5']===null, 'False should be normalized to null');

// Check out the state of the normalized input
var_dump($input);

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

walk through array with nested output in PHP

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related