How to access and manipulate multi-dimensional array by key names / path?

Question

I\'ve to implement a setter in PHP, that allows me to specify the key, or sub key, of an array (the target), passing the name as a dot-separated-keys value.

Answer 1

If the keys of the array are unique, you can solve the problem in a few lines of code using array_walk_recursive:

    $arr = array('a' => 1,
        'b' => array(
            'y' => 2,
            'x' => array('z' => 5, 'w' => 'abc')
        ),
        'c' => null);

    function changeVal(&$v, $key, $mydata) {
        if($key == $mydata[0]) {
            $v = $mydata[1];
        }
    }

    $key = 'z';
    $value = '56';
    array_walk_recursive($arr, 'changeVal', array($key, $value));

    print_r($arr);