Multidimensional array from string

Question

Let\'s say I have this string which I want to put in a multidimensional array.

Edit : The number of subfolders in the string are dynamic .. from zero sub folders to

Answer 1

This can be solved recursively in another way by taking the items from the beginning of the array and when the last item is reached just return it.

function make_tree( $arr ){
   if( count($arr) === 1){
      return array_pop( $arr );
   }else{
      $result[ array_shift( $arr )] = make_tree( $arr ) ; 
   }
   return $result;
}

$string  = "Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .= "Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .= "Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";

$string = trim( $string );

$files_paths = explode( PHP_EOL, $string);

$result = [];

foreach ($files_paths as $key => $value) {
   $parted = explode( '/', $value );
   $tree = make_tree( $parted );
   $result = array_merge_recursive( $result, $tree );
   
}
var_dump( $result );

Answer 2

You could borrow pieces of code from this class (link no longer available), specifically the _processContentEntry method.

Here's a modified version of the method that does the job:

function stringToArray($path)
{
    $separator = '/';
    $pos = strpos($path, $separator);

    if ($pos === false) {
        return array($path);
    }

    $key = substr($path, 0, $pos);
    $path = substr($path, $pos + 1);

    $result = array(
        $key => stringToArray($path),
    );

    return $result;
}

The output of

var_dump(stringToArray('a/b/c/d'));

Will be

array(1) {
  ["a"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["b"]=>
    array(1) {
      ["c"]=>
      array(1) {
        [0]=>
        string(1) "d"
      }
    }
  }
}

I suppose that's what you need :)

---

UPDATE

As per your comment, here's how you can process a string separated by new line characters:

$string = "Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .= " Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .= " Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";

// split string into lines
$lines = explode(PHP_EOL, $string);

// trim all entries
$lines = array_map('trim', $lines);

// remove all empty entries
$lines = array_filter($lines);

$output = array();

// process each path
foreach ($lines as $line) {
    // split each line by /
    $struct = stringToArray($line);

    // merge new path into the output array
    $output = array_merge_recursive($output, $struct);
}

print_r($output);

P.S. To convert this array to a string, just call json_encode, however I see no reason to convert it to an array and then back to what it was.

Answer 3

I think this what you want,

$string ="Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename1\n";
$string .="Folder1/Folder2/Folder3/filename2\n";
$string .="Folder4/Folder2/Folder3/filename3\n";


$string_array_1 = explode("\n", $string);

$array_need = array();

foreach($string_array_1 as $array_values)
{
        if($array_values)
        {
            $folders =  explode("/", $array_values);
            $array_need[$folders[0]][$folders[1]][$folders[2]][] = $folders[3];
        }
    }

print_r($array_need);