Herding Data into a multidimensional array

Question

I'm having an extremely blonde moment, forgive me....

I'm working with PHP.

So, in a text document I have a whole lot of this:

Animals
Animals / Farm
Animals / Farm / Chickens
Animals / Farm / Chickens / Hens
Animals / Farm / Chickens / Roosters
Animals / Farm / Cows
Animals / Farm / Cows / Bulls
Animals / Farm / Donkeys & Mules
Animals / Farm / Ducks
Animals / Farm / Geese
Animals / Farm / Goats
Animals / Farm / Horses
Animals / Farm / Horses / Draft Horses
Animals / Farm / Horses / Draft Horses / American Cream Draft
Animals / Farm / Horses / Draft Horses / Belgian Draft Horse
Animals / Farm / Horses / Draft Horses / Clydesdale
Animals / Farm / Horses / Draft Horses / Percheron
Animals / Farm / Horses / Draft Horses / Shire Horse
Animals / Farm / Horses / Draft Horses / Spotted Draft Horse
Animals / Farm / Horses / Gaited Horses
Animals / Farm / Horses / Gaited Horses / American Saddlebred
Animals / Farm / Horses / Gaited Horses / McCurdy Plantation Horses
Animals / Farm / Horses / Gaited Horses / Missouri Fox Trotting
Animals / Farm / Horses / Gaited Horses / Paso Fino
Animals / Farm / Horses / Gaited Horses / Peruvian Paso
Animals / Farm / Horses / Gaited Horses / Rocky Mountain
Animals / Farm / Horses / Gaited Horses / Spotted Saddle Horse
Animals / Farm / Horses / Gaited Horses / Tennessee Walking
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Australian Riding Pony
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Chincoteague
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Connemara
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Dales
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Dartmoor
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Exmoor
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Fell
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Haflinger
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Icelandic
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / New Forest
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Quarter
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Shetland
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Sport Ponies
Animals / Farm / Horses / Ponies / Welsh Pony

And I need to get it into a multidimensional array so that I can build a multi-level menu out of it. I have no problem bringing in the data, the problem is with the parsing. I am having trouble matching the newline, and also, lets assume I get it exploded out. how do I get a bunch of arrays like:

array(
    0=>Animals
    1=>Farm
    2=>Horses
    3=>Ponies
    4=>Welsh Ponies);

Into what I need?..... Seems so simple and I am having a major issue with it....

A helpful hand in the right direction please?

it would nice to know what language so we can give you a more specific answer — Daniel, Dec 26 '12 at 17:18

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

Assuming it's PHP ;), here are some building blocks:

Split a multiline text: https://stackoverflow.com/a/3997362/1665128
For each line, explode it into a temporary array using ' / ' as a delimiter: http://php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php
Convert the temp array into a map: http://php.bigresource.com/convert-a-simple-array-to-associative-array--lZQwGgRfV.html and the original How to convert a simple array to an associative array?
Add the map to your multidimensional array: http://webcheatsheet.com/PHP/multidimensional_arrays.php

Herding Data into a multidimensional array

1 Answers1