Question

I have an array in PHP, which looks like this:

array (
    [0] => array (
        [id] => 1
        [title] => "Title 1"
        [parent_id] => NULL
        [depth] => 0
    )
    [1] => array (
        [id] => 2
        [title] => "Title 2"
        [parent_id] => NULL
        [depth] => 0
    )
    [2] => array (
        [id] => 3
        [title] => "Title 3"
        [parent_id] => 2
        [depth] => 1
    )
    [3] => array (
        [id] => 4
        [title] => "Title 4"
        [parent_id] => 2
        [depth] => 1
    )
    [4] => array (
        [id] => 5
        [title] => "Title 5"
        [parent_id] => NULL
        [depth] => 0
    )
    [5] => array (
        [id] => 6
        [title] => "Title 6"
        [parent_id] => 4
        [depth] => 2
    )
)

What i want to do is iterate over this array and create a nested <ol> list from it. So the result should look like this:

<ol>
    <li>Title 1</li> // id = 1
    <li>Title 2</li> // id = 2
    <ol>
        <li>Title 3</li> // id = 3 -> parent_id = 2
        <li>Title 4</li> // id = 4 -> parent_id = 2
        <ol>
            <li>Title 6</li> // id = 6 -> parent_id = 4
        </ol>
    </ol>
    <li>Title 5</li> // id = 5
</ol>

I’ve been trying to think of a way how i could get this done. But so far every attempt failed…

Anyone any idea how i can create such a nested <ol> list from an array like that?

Please note that i do not have any control on the given data. I simply make a call to an API and it returns json data, which i convert to an array. And the array looks exactly like the one i described.

Answer 1

You should use recursion:

First the array in ‘php’ syntax:

<?php
$a=array (
    '0' => array (
        'id' => 1,
        'title' => "Title 1",
        'parent_id' => 'NULL',
        'depth' => 0
    ),
    '1' => array (
        'id' => 2,
        'title' => "Title 2",
        'parent_id' => 'NULL',
        'depth' => 0
    ),
    '2' => array (
        'id' => 3,
        'title' => "Title 3",
        'parent_id' => 2,
        'depth' => 1
    ),
    '3' => array (
        'id' => 4,
        'title' => "Title 4",
        'parent_id' => 2,
        'depth' => 1
    ),
    '4' => array (
        'id' => 5,
        'title' => "Title 5",
        'parent_id' => 'NULL',
        'depth' => 0
    ),
    '5' => array (
        'id' => 6,
        'title' => "Title 6",
        'parent_id' => 4,
        'depth' => 0
    )
);

Here the code:

$level = 'NULL';

function r( $a, $level) {
   $r = "<ol>";
   foreach ( $a as $i ) {
       if ($i['parent_id'] == $level ) {
          $r = $r . "<li>" . $i['title'] . r( $a, $i['id'] ) . "</li>";
       }
   }
   $r = $r . "</ol>";
   return $r;
}

print r( $a, $level );

?>

The results:

<ol><li>Title 1<ol></ol></li><li>Title 2<ol><li>Title 3<ol>
</ol></li><li>Title 4<ol><li>Title 6<ol></ol></li></ol></li></ol></li><li>Title 5
<ol></ol></li></ol>

1. Title 1\n
2. Title 2\n
   1. Title 3\n
   2. Title 4\n
      1. Title 6\n
3. Title 5\n

EDITED AFTER CHECK AS SOLUTION

To avoid empty leafs:

function r( $a, $level) {
   $r = '' ;
   foreach ( $a as $i ) {
       if ($i['parent_id'] == $level ) {
          $r = $r . "<li>" . $i['title'] . r( $a, $i['id'] ) . "</li>";
       }
   }
   return ($r==''?'':"<ol>". $r . "</ol>");
}