How to unflatten array in PHP using dot notation

Question

I have php array structure like this:

array(
    'servicemanagement.scheduler.events.edit' => 'Edit',
    'servicemanagement.scheduler.events.delete' => 'Delete',
    'servicemanagement.scheduler.events' => 'Events',
    'servicemanagement.scheduler' => 'Scheduler',
    'servicemanagement.subscribers' => 'Subscribers',
    'servicemanagement.subscribers.index' => 'Index',
    'servicemanagement' => 'Service management',
);

And I would like to convert is to multidimensional array like:

array(
    'servicemanagement' => array(
        'id' => 'servicemanagement',
        'title' => 'Service Management',
        'children' => array(
            'scheduler' => array(
                'id' => 'servicemanagement.scheduler',
                'title' => 'Scheduler',
                'children' => array(
                    'events' => array(
                        'id' => 'servicemanagement.scheduler.events',
                        'title' => 'Events',
                        'children' => array(
                            'edit' => array(
                                'id' => 'servicemanagement.scheduler.events.edit',
                                'title' => 'Edit',
                                'children' => array(),
                            ),
                            'delete' => array(
                                'id' => 'servicemanagement.scheduler.events.delete',
                                'title' => 'Delete',
                                'children' => array(),
                            ),
                        ),
                    ),
                ),
            ),
            'subscribers' => array(
                'id' => 'servicemanagement.subscribers',
                'title' => 'Subscribers',
                'children' => array(
                    'index' => array(
                        'id' => 'servicemanagement.subscribers.index',
                        'title' => 'Index',
                    )
                ),
            ),
        ),
    ),
);

I have checked some answers already like this one: How to set a deep array in PHP

But it seems that i could not manage to clear up the writing on top of the arrays and the last record 'servicemanagement' removes all of the previous records.

The function that is used there is

function setArray(&$array, $keys, $value) {
    $keys = explode(".", $keys);
    $current = &$array;
    foreach($keys as $key) {
        $current = &$current[$key];
    }
    $current = $value;
}

Another function that I have found but it is not doing the expected result is:

function unflatten($array,$prefix = '')
{
    $result = array();
    foreach($array as $key=>$value)    {
        if (!empty($prefix)) {
            $key = preg_replace('#^'.preg_quote($prefix).'#','',$key);
        }
        if (strpos($key,'.') !== false) {
            parse_str('result['.str_replace('.','][',$key)."]=".$value);
        } else {
            $result[$key] = $value;
        }
    }
    return $result;
}

It is an option to use recursion to unflatten this array since the end format is the same for all records.

May anyone give me a tip ot this one?

Hm, I think you have to create a recursive function for that. — sybear, Jun 28 '13 at 12:49
I once answered similar question, [take a look at this](http://stackoverflow.com/a/15341125/2088851) — Voitcus, Jun 28 '13 at 12:56
@Voitcus it is similar solution to the first example in the post. — kachar, Jun 28 '13 at 13:01
When the function processes the last row `servicemanagement` it overwrites the whole tree and the result is `array('servicemanagement' => 'Service Management');` — kachar, Jun 28 '13 at 13:05
[Convert dot syntax like “this.that.other” to multi-dimensional array in PHP](https://stackoverflow.com/q/9635968/2943403) — mickmackusa, Dec 11 '20 at 03:01

Andrew · Answer 1 · 2019-11-15T00:52:57.307

I created an unflatten function for reference here:

https://gist.github.com/Gerst20051/b14c05b72c73b49bc2d306e7c8b86223

$results = [
  'id' => 'abc123',
  'address.id' => 'def456',
  'address.coordinates.lat' => '12.345',
  'address.coordinates.lng' => '67.89',
  'address.coordinates.geo.accurate' => true,
];

function unflatten($data) {
  $output = [];
  foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
    $parts = explode('.', $key);
    $nested = &$output;
    while (count($parts) > 1) {
      $nested = &$nested[array_shift($parts)];
      if (!is_array($nested)) $nested = [];
    }
    $nested[array_shift($parts)] = $value;
  }
  return $output;
}

echo json_encode(unflatten($results));

/*
{
  "id": "abc123",
  "address": {
    "id": "def456",
    "coordinates": {
      "lat": "12.345",
      "lng": "67.89",
      "geo": {
        "accurate": true
      }
    }
  }
}
*/

This was slightly influenced by the following resources:

Mike · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-28T14:23:06.867

This isn't the cleanest solution but it works as a single function

    $your_array = array(
        'servicemanagement.scheduler.events.edit' => 'Edit',
        'servicemanagement.scheduler.events.delete' => 'Delete',
        'servicemanagement.scheduler.events' => 'Events',
        'servicemanagement.scheduler' => 'Scheduler',
        'servicemanagement.subscribers' => 'Subscribers',
        'servicemanagement.subscribers.index' => 'Index',
        'servicemanagement' => 'Service management',
    );

    function expand($array, $level = 0)
    {
        $result = array();
        $next = $level + 1;

        foreach($array as $key=>$value) {
            $tree = explode('.', $key);
            if(isset($tree[$level])) {
                if(!isset($tree[$next])) {
                    $result[$tree[$level]]['id'] =  $key;
                    $result[$tree[$level]]['title'] = $value;
                    if(!isset($result[$tree[$level]]['children'])) {
                        $result[$tree[$level]]['children'] = array();
                    }
                } else {
                    if(isset($result[$tree[$level]]['children'])) {
                        $result[$tree[$level]]['children'] = array_merge_recursive($result[$tree[$level]]['children'], expand(array($key => $value), $next));
                    } else {
                        $result[$tree[$level]]['children'] = expand(array($key => $value), $next);
                    }
                }

            }
        }

        return $result;

    }
   var_export(expand($your_array));

It is good enough and it does the job. We can replace `$result[$tree[$level]]['id'] = implode('.',array_slice($tree, 0, $next));` with `$result[$tree[$level]]['id'] = $key;` — kachar, Jun 28 '13 at 14:16
I just changed the answer to suit this as it removes unnecessary logic. — Mike, Jun 28 '13 at 14:27

How to unflatten array in PHP using dot notation

2 Answers2