Question

I have the following code which takes the data in a variable $main and loops through it so that it outputs the markup below

Form1

Firstname
    Stack
Lastname
    Overflow

Form2

Grade
    some grade
Address
    some address
School
    some school

The code I use to loop through $main is this, and it outputs markup, as you can see dl,dd,dt, etc. How can I create an object instead that could be traversed as $main_object->form1->firstname or something like that?

foreach ($main as $info){
   foreach ($info as $form => $data){

      $output .= '<h4>'. ucfirst($form) .'</h4>';               
      $output .= '<dl>';
      foreach ($data as $key => $value){
          $output .= '<dt>'. ucfirst($key) .'</dt>';
      if (is_array($value)){
             foreach ($value as $label => $val){
                $output .= '<dd>'. $val .'</dd>';
             }
          } else {
             $output .= '<dd>'. $value .'</dd>';
          }
      }
      $output .= '</dl>';

   }//foreach
}//foreach 

Answer 1

Objects can be created by instantiating a new stdClass instance. You should be able to modify the following example to suit your needs:

$root = new stdClass;

// For each form

   $current_form = $root->$form_name = new stdClass;

   // For each item

      $current_form->$item_name = $item_value;

A dump of the object will then yield something like:

stdClass Object
(
    [Form1] => stdClass Object
        (
            [Firstname] => Stack
            // etc..
        )

)

Which can then be accessed via:

$root->Form1->Firstname;