Question

can’t figure out how to insert a new string in a specific emplacement in an array regarding a given uri.

to be more specific,

I’m trying to create a function like the following one :

function insertNewFolder($name, $path){

  $struct = json_decode( file_get_contents('structure.json'), true );

  //at this place I want to include $name in the array according the given $path
}

let’s assume $struct is the following array :

$struct = array( 'folder' => array('subfolder1', 'subfolder2') );

NOTE: the scope can be more than one subfolder.
example : array( 'folder' => array( 'subfolder' => array( 'subsubfolder' )));

If I call the method like this insertNewFolder('subfolder3', 'folder'); the resulting array should be :

$struct = array( 'folder' => array('subfolder1', 'subfolder2', 'subfolder3') );

this is my try :

function insertNewFolder($name, $path){

  ...

  // insert the new folder according the path
  $segments = explode('/', $path);

  $arr_path = '';
  foreach( $segments as $s ){
    $arr_path .= "['$s']";
  }
  eval("/$menu$arr_path[] = '$name';");

  ...
}

This would work if the eval method weren’t throwing an exception :

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ']', expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING on line 16

I beg your help, is there a better way to reach this end or how to round this exception ?

Regards

Answer 1

You can do something similar to this (demo):

function insertValueByPath($array, $path, $value) {
    $current = &$array;
    foreach (explode('/', $path) as $part) {
        $current = &$current[$part];
    }
    $current = $value;

    return $array;
}

$struct = array(
    'folder' => array(
        'subfolder1' => array(),
        'subfolder2' => array(),
    ),
);

$struct = insertValueByPath($struct, 'folder/subfolder1/subsubfolder', array());
$struct = insertValueByPath($struct, 'folder/subfolder2/subsubfolder/subsubsub/subsubsubsub', array('hallo'));