Question

I have an array that can vary in how many arrays deep there are, for example:

array(
  'one' => array(
     array(
        'something' => 'value'
     ),
     array(
        'something2' => 'value2'
     ),
     'another' => 'anothervalue'
  ),
  'two' =>  array(
     array(
        'something' => 'value'
     ),
     array(
        'something2' => 'value2'
     ),
     'another' => 'anothervalue'
  )
)

Now, let’s say I want to replace everything with the key ‘something’.

Would I need to use a recursive function to iterate through the array? or is there a better way?

Answer 1

Have a look at array_walk_recursive. It may be quite handy in a situation like this.

Here’s an example using array_walk_recursive:

$arr = array(
      'one' => array(
            array('something' => 'value'),
            array('something2' => 'value2'),
            'another' => 'anothervalue'
            ),
      'two' =>  array(
            array('something' => 'value'),
            array('something2' => 'value2'),
            'another' => 'anothervalue'
            )
       );

function update_something(&$item, $key)
{
    if($key == 'something')
        $item = 'newValue';
}

array_walk_recursive($arr, 'update_something');

If used inside a class the callback method have to add the object along with the function. This is achieved with an array:

array_walk_recursive($arr, array($this, 'update_something'));