How to Flatten a Multidimensional Array?

Question

Is it possible, in PHP, to flatten a (bi/multi)dimensional array without using recursion or references?

I'm only interested in the values so the keys can be ignored, I'm thinking in the lines of array_map() and array_values().

Answer 1

A more recent solution can be found in this answer below

As of PHP 5.3 the shortest solution seems to be array_walk_recursive() with the new closures syntax:

function flatten(array $array) {
    $return = array();
    array_walk_recursive($array, function($a) use (&$return) { $return[] = $a; });
    return $return;
}

Answer 2

You can use the Standard PHP Library (SPL) to "hide" the recursion.

$a = array(1,2,array(3,4, array(5,6,7), 8), 9);
$it = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveArrayIterator($a));
foreach($it as $v) {
  echo $v, " ";
}

prints

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 

Answer 3

In PHP 5.6 and above you can flatten two dimensional arrays with array_merge after unpacking the outer array with ... operator. The code is simple and clear.

array_merge(...$a);

This works with collection of associative arrays too.

$a = [[10, 20], [30, 40]];
$b = [["x" => "A", "y" => "B"], ["y" => "C", "z" => "D"]];

print_r(array_merge(...$a));
print_r(array_merge(...$b));

Array
(
    [0] => 10
    [1] => 20
    [2] => 30
    [3] => 40
)
Array
(
    [x] => A
    [y] => C
    [z] => D
)

In PHP 8.0 and below, array unpacking does not work when the outer array has non numeric keys. Support for unpacking array with string keys is available from PHP 8.1. To support 8.0 and below, you should call array_values first.

$c = ["a" => ["x" => "A", "y" => "B"], "b" => ["y" => "C", "z" => "D"]];
print_r(array_merge(...array_values($c)));

Array
(
    [x] => A
    [y] => C
    [z] => D
)

Update: Based on comment by @MohamedGharib (for PHP 7.3.x and older ref)

This will throw an error if the outer array is empty, since array_merge would be called with zero arguments. It can be be avoided by adding an empty array as the first argument.

array_merge([], ...$a);

Answer 4

Solution for 2 dimensional array

Please try this :

$array  = your array

$result = call_user_func_array('array_merge', $array);

echo "<pre>";
print_r($result);

EDIT : 21-Aug-13

Here is the solution which works for multi-dimensional array :

function array_flatten($array) {
    $return = array();
    foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
        if (is_array($value)){
            $return = array_merge($return, array_flatten($value));
        } else {
            $return[$key] = $value;
        }
    }

    return $return;
}

$array  = Your array

$result = array_flatten($array);

echo "<pre>";
print_r($result);

Ref: http://php.net/manual/en/function.call-user-func-array.php

Answer 5

To flatten w/o recursion (as you have asked for), you can use a stack. Naturally you can put this into a function of it's own like array_flatten. The following is a version that works w/o keys:.

function array_flatten(array $array)
{
    $flat = array(); // initialize return array
    $stack = array_values($array); // initialize stack
    while($stack) // process stack until done
    {
        $value = array_shift($stack);
        if (is_array($value)) // a value to further process
        {
            array_unshift($stack, ...$value);
        }
        else // a value to take
        {
            $flat[] = $value;
        }
    }
    return $flat;
}

Elements are processed in their order. Because subelements will be moved on top of the stack, they will be processed next.

It's possible to take keys into account as well, however, you'll need a different strategy to handle the stack. That's needed because you need to deal with possible duplicate keys in the sub-arrays. A similar answer in a related question: PHP Walk through multidimensional array while preserving keys

I'm not specifically sure, but I I had tested this in the past: The RecurisiveIterator does use recursion, so it depends on what you really need. Should be possible to create a recursive iterator based on stacks as well:

foreach(new FlatRecursiveArrayIterator($array) as $key => $value)
{
    echo "** ($key) $value\n";
}

Demo

I didn't make it so far, to implement the stack based on RecursiveIterator which I think is a nice idea.

Answer 6

Just thought I'd point out that this is a fold, so array_reduce can be used:

array_reduce($my_array, 'array_merge', array());

EDIT: Note that this can be composed to flatten any number of levels. We can do this in several ways:

// Reduces one level
$concat   = function($x) { return array_reduce($x, 'array_merge', array()); };

// We can compose $concat with itself $n times, then apply it to $x
// This can overflow the stack for large $n
$compose  = function($f, $g) {
    return function($x) use ($f, $g) { return $f($g($x)); };
};
$identity = function($x) { return $x; };
$flattenA = function($n) use ($compose, $identity, $concat) {
    return  function($x) use ($compose, $identity, $concat, $n) {
        return ($n === 0)? $x
                         : call_user_func(array_reduce(array_fill(0, $n, $concat),
                                                       $compose,
                                                       $identity),
                                          $x);
    };
};

// We can iteratively apply $concat to $x, $n times
$uncurriedFlip     = function($f) {
    return  function($a, $b) use ($f) {
        return $f($b, $a);
    };
};
$iterate  = function($f) use ($uncurriedFlip) {
    return  function($n) use ($uncurriedFlip, $f) {
    return  function($x) use ($uncurriedFlip, $f, $n) {
        return ($n === 0)? $x
                         : array_reduce(array_fill(0, $n, $f),
                                        $uncurriedFlip('call_user_func'),
                                        $x);
    }; };
};
$flattenB = $iterate($concat);

// Example usage:
$apply    = function($f, $x) {
    return $f($x);
};
$curriedFlip = function($f) {
    return  function($a) use ($f) {
    return  function($b) use ($f, $a) {
        return $f($b, $a);
    }; };
};

var_dump(
    array_map(
        call_user_func($curriedFlip($apply),
                       array(array(array('A', 'B', 'C'),
                                   array('D')),
                             array(array(),
                                   array('E')))),
        array($flattenA(2), $flattenB(2))));

Of course, we could also use loops but the question asks for a combinator function along the lines of array_map or array_values.

Answer 7

Straightforward and One-liner answer.

function flatten_array(array $array)
{
    return iterator_to_array(
         new \RecursiveIteratorIterator(new \RecursiveArrayIterator($array)));
}

Usage:

$array = [
    'name' => 'Allen Linatoc',
    'profile' => [
        'age' => 21,
        'favourite_games' => [ 'Call of Duty', 'Titanfall', 'Far Cry' ]
    ]
];

print_r( flatten_array($array) );

Output (in PsySH):

Array
(
    [name] => Allen Linatoc
    [age] => 21
    [0] => Call of Duty
    [1] => Titanfall
    [2] => Far Cry
)

Now it's pretty up to you now how you'll handle the keys. Cheers

---

EDIT (2017-03-01)

Quoting Nigel Alderton's concern/issue:

Just to clarify, this preserves keys (even numeric ones) so values that have the same key are lost. For example $array = ['a',['b','c']] becomes Array ([0] => b, [1] => c ). The 'a' is lost because 'b' also has a key of 0

Quoting Svish's answer:

Just add false as second parameter ($use_keys) to the iterator_to_array call

Answer 8

Uses recursion. Hopefully upon seeing how not-complex it is, your fear of recursion will dissipate once you see how not-complex it is.

function flatten($array) {
    if (!is_array($array)) {
        // nothing to do if it's not an array
        return array($array);
    }

    $result = array();
    foreach ($array as $value) {
        // explode the sub-array, and add the parts
        $result = array_merge($result, flatten($value));
    }

    return $result;
}


$arr = array('foo', array('nobody', 'expects', array('another', 'level'), 'the', 'Spanish', 'Inquisition'), 'bar');
echo '<ul>';
foreach (flatten($arr) as $value) {
    echo '<li>', $value, '</li>';
}
echo '<ul>';

Output:

<ul><li>foo</li><li>nobody</li><li>expects</li><li>another</li><li>level</li><li>the</li><li>Spanish</li><li>Inquisition</li><li>bar</li><ul>

Answer 9

Flattens two dimensional arrays only:

$arr = [1, 2, [3, 4]];
$arr = array_reduce($arr, function ($a, $b) {
     return array_merge($a, (array) $b);
}, []);

// Result: [1, 2, 3, 4]

Answer 10

This solution is non-recursive. Note that the order of the elements will be somewhat mixed.

function flatten($array) {
    $return = array();
    while(count($array)) {
        $value = array_shift($array);
        if(is_array($value))
            foreach($value as $sub)
                $array[] = $sub;
        else
            $return[] = $value;
    }
    return $return;
}

Answer 11

I believe this is the cleanest solution without using any mutations nor unfamiliar classes.

<?php

function flatten($array)
{
    return array_reduce($array, function($acc, $item){
        return array_merge($acc, is_array($item) ? flatten($item) : [$item]);
    }, []);
}


// usage
$array = [1, 2, [3, 4], [5, [6, 7]], 8, 9, 10];
print_r(flatten($array));

Answer 12

The Laravel helper for flattening arrays is Arr::flatten()

Answer 13

From PHP v7.4, you can use the spread operator and merge the arrays. Simple and effective.

$flatArr = array_merge(...$originalArray);

Answer 14

You can do it with ouzo goodies:

 $result = Arrays::flatten($multidimensional);

See: Here

Answer 15

Try the following simple function:

function _flatten_array($arr) {
  while ($arr) {
    list($key, $value) = each($arr); 
    is_array($value) ? $arr = $value : $out[$key] = $value;
    unset($arr[$key]);
  }
  return (array)$out;
}

So from this:

array (
  'und' => 
  array (
    'profiles' => 
    array (
      0 => 
      array (
        'commerce_customer_address' => 
        array (
          'und' => 
          array (
            0 => 
            array (
              'first_name' => 'First name',
              'last_name' => 'Last name',
              'thoroughfare' => 'Address 1',
              'premise' => 'Address 2',
              'locality' => 'Town/City',
              'administrative_area' => 'County',
              'postal_code' => 'Postcode',
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    ),
  ),
)

you get:

array (
  'first_name' => 'First name',
  'last_name' => 'Last name',
  'thoroughfare' => 'Address 1',
  'premise' => 'Address 2',
  'locality' => 'Town/City',
  'administrative_area' => 'County',
  'postal_code' => 'Postcode',
)

Answer 16

How about using a recursive generator? https://ideone.com/d0TXCg

<?php

$array = [
    'name' => 'Allen Linatoc',
    'profile' => [
        'age' => 21,
        'favourite_games' => [ 'Call of Duty', 'Titanfall', 'Far Cry' ]
    ]
];

foreach (iterate($array) as $item) {
    var_dump($item);
};

function iterate($array)
{
    foreach ($array as $item) {
        if (is_array($item)) {
            yield from iterate($item);
        } else {
            yield $item;
        }
    }
}

Answer 17

If you want to keep also your keys that is solution.

function flatten(array $array) {
    $return = array();
    array_walk_recursive($array, function($value, $key) use (&$return) { $return[$key] = $value; });
    return $return;
}

Unfortunately it outputs only final nested arrays, without middle keys. So for the following example:

$array = array(
    'sweet' => array(
        'a' => 'apple',
        'b' => 'banana'),
    'sour' => 'lemon'); 
print_r(flatten($fruits));

Output is:

Array
(
    [a] => apple
    [b] => banana
    [sour] => lemon
)

Answer 18

The trick is passing the both the source and destination arrays by reference.

function flatten_array(&$arr, &$dst) {
    if(!isset($dst) || !is_array($dst)) {
        $dst = array();
    }
    if(!is_array($arr)) {
        $dst[] = $arr;
    } else {
        foreach($arr as &$subject) {
            flatten_array($subject, $dst);
        }
    }
}

$recursive = array('1', array('2','3',array('4',array('5','6')),'7',array(array(array('8'),'9'),'10')));
echo "Recursive: \r\n";
print_r($recursive);
$flat = null;
flatten_array($recursive, $flat);

echo "Flat: \r\n";
print_r($flat);

// If you change line 3 to $dst[] = &$arr; , you won't waste memory,
// since all you're doing is copying references, and imploding the array 
// into a string will be both memory efficient and fast:)

echo "String:\r\n";
echo implode(',',$flat);

Answer 19

If you really don't like a recursion ... try shifting instead :)

$a = array(1,2,array(3,4, array(5,6,7), 8), 9);
$o = [];
for ($i=0; $i<count($a); $i++) {
    if (is_array($a[$i])) {
        array_splice($a, $i+1, 0, $a[$i]);
    } else {
        $o[] = $a[$i];
    }
}

Note: In this simple version, this does not support array keys.

Answer 20

/**
 * For merging values of a multidimensional array into one 
 *
 * $array = [
 *     0 => [
 *         0 => 'a1',
 *         1 => 'b1',
 *         2 => 'c1',
 *         3 => 'd1'
 *     ],
 *     1 => [
 *         0 => 'a2',
 *         1 => 'b2',
 *         2 => 'c2',
 *     ]
 * ];
 *
 * becomes : 
 *
 * $array = [
 *     0 => 'a1',
 *     1 => 'b1',
 *     2 => 'c1',
 *     3 => 'd1',
 *     4 => 'a2',
 *     5 => 'b2',
 *     6 => 'c2',
 *     
 * ]
 */
array_reduce
(
    $multiArray
    , function ($lastItem, $currentItem) {
        $lastItem = $lastItem ?: array();
        return array_merge($lastItem, array_values($currentItem));
    }
);

Gist snippet

Answer 21

Anyone looking for a really clean solution to this; here's an option:

Taking an array of arrays with various key value configurations:

$test_array = array(
    array('test' => 0, 0, 0, 0),
    array(0, 0, 'merp' => array('herp' => 'derp'), 0),
    array(0, 0, 0, 0),
    array(0, 0, 0, 0)
);
$it = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveArrayIterator($test_array));
var_dump( iterator_to_array($it, false) ) ; 

This will take only the values from each array and return a single flat array.

Output of values in result:

0 0 0 0 0 0 derp 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Answer 22

For php 5.2

function flatten(array $array) {
    $result = array();

    if (is_array($array)) {
        foreach ($array as $k => $v) {
            if (is_array($v)) {
                $result = array_merge($result, flatten($v));
            } else {
                $result[] = $v;
            }
        }
    }

    return $result;
}

Answer 23

This version can do deep, shallow, or a specific number of levels:

/**
 * @param  array|object $array  array of mixed values to flatten
 * @param  int|boolean  $level  0:deep, 1:shallow, 2:2 levels, 3...
 * @return array
 */
function flatten($array, $level = 0) {
    $level = (int) $level;
    $result = array();
    foreach ($array as $i => $v) {
        if (0 <= $level && is_array($v)) {
            $v = flatten($v, $level > 1 ? $level - 1 : 0 - $level);
            $result = array_merge($result, $v);
        } elseif (is_int($i)) {
            $result[] = $v;
        } else {
            $result[$i] = $v; 
        }
    }
    return $result;
}

Answer 24

Because the code in here looks scary. Here is a function that will also convert a multidimensional array into html form compatible syntax, but which is easier to read.

/**
 * Flattens a multi demensional array into a one dimensional
 * to be compatible with hidden html fields.
 *
 * @param array $array
 *  Array in the form:
 *  array(
 *    'a' => array(
 *      'b' => '1'
 *    )
 *  )
 *
 * @return array
 *  Array in the form:
 *  array(
 *    'a[b]' => 1,
 *  )
 */
function flatten_array($array) {
  // Continue until $array is a one-dimensional array.
  $continue = TRUE;
  while ($continue) {
    $continue = FALSE;

    // Walk through top and second level of $array and move 
    // all values in the second level up one level.
    foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
      if (is_array($value)) {
        // Second level found, therefore continue.
        $continue = TRUE;

        // Move each value a level up.
        foreach ($value as $child_key => $child_value) {
          $array[$key . '[' . $child_key . ']'] = $child_value;
        }

        // Remove second level array from top level.
        unset($array[$key]);
      }
    }
  }

  return $array;
}

Answer 25

If you want to keep intermediate keys:

function flattenArray(array &$result, $value, string $key = "")
{
    if (!is_array($value)) {
        $result[$key] = $value;
        return $result;
    }
    foreach ($value as $subKey => $subArray) {
        $newKey = $key !== "" ? $key . "_" . $subKey : $subKey;
        flattenArray($result, $subArray, $newKey);
    }
    return $result;
}

$nestedArray = [
    "name" => "John",
    "pets" => [
        ["id" => 1, "name" => "snooop"],
        ["id" => 2, "name" => "medor"],
    ],
    "job" => ["title" => "developper"],
];

$intermediateResult = [];
$flattened = flattenArray($intermediateResult, $nestedArray);
var_dump($flattened);

This will output:

array(6) {
["name"]=>
  string(4) "John"
        ["pets_0_id"]=>
  int(1)
  ["pets_0_name"]=>
  string(6) "snooop"
        ["pets_1_id"]=>
  int(2)
  ["pets_1_name"]=>
  string(5) "medor"
        ["job_title"]=>
  string(10) "developper"
}

See https://ideone.com/KXLtzZ#stdout

Answer 26

Non recursive, non references based implementation, as asked, which may be easier to understand than a recursion based implemetation. Can manage arbitrary deep multidimensional arrays, can't flatten associative arrays. It works by flattening the array one level per cycle, until it is completly valid.

function array_flatten(): array{
    $result = func_get_args();
    // check all elements of $list are not arrays
    $_is_flat = function (array $list): bool {
        foreach ($list as $val) {
            if (is_array($val)) {
                return false;
            }
        }
        return true;
    };
    do {
        $tmp = [];
        foreach ($result as $val) {
            if (is_array($val)) {
                if (!array_is_list($val)) {
                    throw new \Exception(sprintf("array_flatten can't handle associative arrays: %s", json_encode($val)));
                }
                $tmp = array_merge($tmp, $val);
            } else {
                $tmp[] = $val;
            }
        }
        $result = $tmp;
    } while (!$_is_flat($result));
    return $result;
}

This are the cases it handles:

assertEquals(array_flatten(1, 2), $expected = [1, 2], 'array_flatten 1a');
assertEquals(array_flatten([1], [2]), $expected = [1, 2], 'array_flatten 1b');
assertEquals(array_flatten([1], [[2], 3]), $expected = [1, 2, 3], 'array_flatten 1c');
assertEquals(array_flatten(1, [2, 3], [4, 5]), $expected = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 'array_flatten 2');
assertEquals(array_flatten(2, 3, [4, 5], [6, 7], 8), $expected = [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], 'array_flatten 3');
assertEquals(array_flatten([2, 3, [4, 5], [6, 7], 8]), $expected = [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], 'array_flatten 4');
assertEquals(array_flatten([2, [3, [4, [5]], [6, [7]], 8]]), $expected = [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], 'array_flatten complex');

Answer 27

I needed to represent PHP multidimensional array in HTML input format.

$test = [
    'a' => [
        'b' => [
            'c' => ['a', 'b']
        ]
    ],
    'b' => 'c',
    'c' => [
        'd' => 'e'
    ]
];

$flatten = function ($input, $parent = []) use (&$flatten) {
    $return = [];

    foreach ($input as $k => $v) {
        if (is_array($v)) {
            $return = array_merge($return, $flatten($v, array_merge($parent, [$k])));
        } else {
            if ($parent) {
                $key = implode('][', $parent) . '][' . $k . ']';

                if (substr_count($key, ']') != substr_count($key, '[')) {
                    $key = preg_replace('/\]/', '', $key, 1);
                }
            } else {
                $key = $k;
            }           

            $return[$key] = $v;
        }
    }

    return $return;
};

die(var_dump( $flatten($test) ));

array(4) {
  ["a[b][c][0]"]=>
  string(1) "a"
  ["a[b][c][1]"]=>
  string(1) "b"
  ["b"]=>
  string(1) "c"
  ["c[d]"]=>
  string(1) "e"
}

Answer 28

If you have an array of objects and want to flatten it with a node, just use this function:

function objectArray_flatten($array,$childField) {
    $result = array();
    foreach ($array as $node)
    {
        $result[] = $node;
        if(isset($node->$childField))
        {
            $result = array_merge(
                $result, 
                objectArray_flatten($node->$childField,$childField)
            );
            unset($node->$childField);
        }

    }
    return $result;
}

Answer 29

This is my solution, using a reference:

function arrayFlatten($array_in, &$array_out){

    if(is_array($array_in)){
        foreach ($array_in as $element){
               arrayFlatten($element, $array_out);
        }
    }
    else{
        $array_out[] = $array_in; 
    }
}

$arr1 = array('1', '2', array(array(array('3'), '4', '5')), array(array('6')));

arrayFlatten($arr1, $arr2);

echo "<pre>";
print_r($arr2);
echo "</pre>";

Answer 30

<?php
//recursive solution

//test array
$nested_array = [[1,2,[3]],4,[5],[[[6,[7=>[7,8,9,10]]]]]];

/*-----------------------------------------
function call and return result to an array
------------------------------------------*/
$index_count = 1;
$flatered_array = array();
$flatered_array = flat_array($nested_array, $index_count);

/*-----------------------------------------
Print Result
-----------------------------------------*/
echo "<pre>";
print_r($flatered_array);


/*-----------------------------------------
function to flaten an array 
-----------------------------------------*/
function flat_array($nested_array, & $index_count, & $flatered_array) {

  foreach($nested_array AS $key=>$val) {
      if(is_array($val)) {
        flat_array($val, $index_count, $flatered_array);
      }
      else {
        $flatered_array[$index_count] = $val;
        ++$index_count;
      }      
  }

return $flatered_array;
}
?>

Answer 31

Here's a simplistic approach:

$My_Array = array(1,2,array(3,4, array(5,6,7), 8), 9);

function checkArray($value) {
    foreach ($value as $var) {
        if ( is_array($var) ) {
            checkArray($var);
        } else {
            echo $var;
        }
    }
}

checkArray($My_Array);