Question

Ok so I have an array that holds the following elements:

$array['a']['b'][0]['c'];
$array['a']['b'][1]['c'];
$array['a']['d'][0]['c']['c'];
$array['b']['c'];

Then in a separate array, I have defined the path to these values:

$structure[0] = array('a','b','#','c');
$structure[1] = array('a','d','#','c','c');
$structure[2] = array('b','c');

Finally, I have an array holding the values:

$values[0] = array('value0-0','value0-1');
$values[1] = array('value1-0');
$values[2] = array('value2-0');

I’m trying to find a simple function/loop that will be able to apply the values in $values to the array path of $array that is defined in $structure.

The end result would be:

$array['a']['b'][0]['c']='value0-0';
$array['a']['b'][1]['c']='value0-1';
$array['a']['d'][0]['c']['c']='value1-0';
$array['b']['c']='value2-0';

In the case of $values[0] or $values[1], it would be able to loop through each value and substitute the $structure element matching ‘#’ with the iteration number for that particular $value.

Is this simply a case of knuckling down and writing a drawn out recursive function, or is there a smart construct or php function that could provide a more elegant solution?

SOLUTION:

Thanks to Mario, my eventual solution is:

foreach ($struct as $i=>$keys)
  foreach ($values[$i] as $val) {
    $r = & $array;

    foreach ($keys as $key) {

        if ($key == "#") { $key = $i; }

        $r = & $r[$key];    // move pointer to subarray
    }

    $r = $val;
  }
}

Answer 1

You will have to work with references to traverse the target array:

function inject($array, $struct, $values) {

    foreach ($struct as $i=>$keys)
    foreach ($values[$i] as $val) {
        $r = & $array;

        foreach ($keys as $key) {

            if ($key == "#") { $key = count($r); }

            settype($r[$key], "array");
            $r = & $r[$key];    // move pointer to subarray
        }

        $r = $val;
    }