php - Set multi-dimensional array by key path from array values?

Question

Sorry for the terrible title, best I could think of at the time! Say I have a 'path' array like so;

array('this', 'is', 'the', 'path')

What would be the most effective method to end up with the array below?

array(
    'this' => array(
        'is' => array(
            'the' => array(
                'path' => array()
            )
        )
    )
)

Answer 1

I use two similar functions to get and set values by their path within an array:

function array_get($arr, $path)
{
    if (!$path)
        return null;

    $segments = is_array($path) ? $path : explode('/', $path);
    $cur =& $arr;
    foreach ($segments as $segment) {
        if (!isset($cur[$segment]))
            return null;

        $cur = $cur[$segment];
    }

    return $cur;
}

function array_set(&$arr, $path, $value)
{
    if (!$path)
        return null;

    $segments = is_array($path) ? $path : explode('/', $path);
    $cur =& $arr;
    foreach ($segments as $segment) {
        if (!isset($cur[$segment]))
            $cur[$segment] = array();
        $cur =& $cur[$segment];
    }
    $cur = $value;
}

Then you use them like this:

$value = array_get($arr, 'this/is/the/path');
$value = array_get($arr, array('this', 'is', 'the', 'path'));
array_set($arr, 'here/is/another/path', 23);