Merge “Defaults” array with “Input” array? PHP Which Function?

Question

Lets say you are having a user provide information.

Array 1

But not all is required. So you have defaults.

Array 2
         


        

Answer 1

I think what you are looking for is array_replace_recursive, especially for the case when your "defualts" may be an associative array more than one level deep.

$finalArray = array_replace_recursive(array $defaults, array $inputOptions)

heres an example that takes an optional array of options to a function and does some processing based on the result of those options "opts" and the defaults which you specify:

function do_something() {
    $args = func_get_args();
            $opts = $args[0] ? $args[0] : array();

    $defaults = array(
        "second_level" => array(
                    "key1" => "val1",
                    "key2" => "val2"
                ),
        "key1" => "val1",
        "key2" =>  "val2",
        "key3" => "val3"
    );

    $params = array_replace_recursive($defaults, $opts);
    // do something with these merged parameters
}

The php.net reference document is here