Question

If I have this array,

ini_set('display_errors', true);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

$arr = array(
  'id' => 1234,
  'name' => 'Jack',
  'email' => '[e-mail]',
  'city' => array(
    'id' => 55,
    'name' => 'Los Angeles',
    'country' => array(
      'id' => 77,
      'name' => 'USA',
     ),
  ),
);

I can get the country name with

$name = $arr['city']['country']['name'];

But if the country array doesn’t exist, PHP will generate warning:

Notice: Undefined index ... on line xxx

Sure I can do the test first:

if (isset($arr['city']['country']['name'])) {
  $name = $arr['city']['country']['name'];
} else {
  $name = '';  // or set to default value;
}

But that is inefficient. What is the best way to get $arr['city']['country']['name']
without generating PHP Notice if it doesn’t exist?

Answer 1

I borrowed the code below from Kohana. It will return the element of multidimensional array or NULL (or any default value chosen) if the key doesn’t exist.

function _arr($arr, $path, $default = NULL) 
{
  if (!is_array($arr))
    return $default;

  $cursor = $arr;
  $keys = explode('.', $path);

  foreach ($keys as $key) {
    if (isset($cursor[$key])) {
      $cursor = $cursor[$key];
    } else {
      return $default;
    }
  }

  return $cursor;
}

Given the input array above, access its elements with:

echo _arr($arr, 'id');                    // 1234
echo _arr($arr, 'city.country.name');     // USA
echo _arr($arr, 'city.name');             // Los Angeles
echo _arr($arr, 'city.zip', 'not set');   // not set