Question

I have an array like so:

Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 0 [2] => 0 );

there are 3 elements (3 integers) and I want them to increment from 0 to 36;

I understand that the best way for this is recursion because each element has to be checked to see if it is at the maximum ( 36 ) and if it is, it sets the last element to 0 and increments the previous.

so my array basically wants to go like:

Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 0 [2] => 0 );
Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 0 [2] => 1 );
Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 0 [2] => 2 );
...
Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 0 [2] => 36 );
Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 1 [2] => 0 );
Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 1 [2] => 1 );
....
Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 1 [2] => 36 );
Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 2 [2] => 0 );

ETC ETC ETC

But I’ve got no idea how to do this recursively!

However the solution also needs to work for 4 elements and 5 elements and 6 etc etc!

Can anybody give me some direction?

Answer 1

Similar to Timurs answer, however slightly more efficient and takes a variable base.

$array = array(0, 0, 0);

function bloop(&$array, $amount, $base = 37)
{
    $i = count($array) - 1;
    while ($i >= 0) {
        $array[$i] = $amount % $base;
        $amount = ($amount - $array[$i--]) / $base;
    }
}

bloop($array, (37 * 37 * 2) + (37 * 5) + 8); // 2, 5, 8

var_dump($array);