Convert a String to Variable

Question

I\'ve got a multidimensional associative array which includes an elements like

$data[\"status\"]
$data[\"response\"][\"url\"]
$data[\"entry\"][\"0\"][\"text\         


        

Answer 1

Perhaps this option is also suitable:

$data["entry"]["0"]["text"];
$string = 'data["entry"]["0"]["text"]';

function getIn($arr, $params)
{
    if(!is_array($arr)) {
        return null;
    }
    if (array_key_exists($params[0], $arr) && count($params) > 1) {
        $bf = $params[0];
        array_shift($params);
        return getIn($arr[$bf], $params);
    } elseif (array_key_exists($params[0], $arr) && count($params) == 1) {

        return $arr[$params[0]];
    } else {
        return null;
}
}

preg_match_all('/(?:(\w{1,}|\d))/', $string, $arr_matches, PREG_PATTERN_ORDER);

array_shift($arr_matches[0]);
print_r(getIn($data, $arr_matches[0]));

P.s. it's work for me.

Answer 2

PHP's variable variables will help you out here. You can use them by prefixing the variable with another dollar sign:

$foo = "Hello, world!";
$bar = "foo";
echo $$bar; // outputs "Hello, world!"

Answer 3

I was struggling with that as well, I had this :

$user  =  array('a'=>'alber', 'b'=>'brad'...);

$array_name = 'user';

and I was wondering how to get into albert.

at first I tried

$value_for_a = $$array_name['a']; // this dosen't work 

then

eval('return $'.$array_name['a'].';'); // this dosen't work, maybe the hoster block eval which is very common

then finally I tried the stupid thing:

$array_temp=$$array_name;
$value_for_a = $array_temp['a'];

and this just worked Perfect! wisdom, do it simple do it stupid.

I hope this answers your question