Convert a Multidimensional Array Into Single Dimension using php

I have wrapped three static functions for converting multidimensional configuration data. It is very much useful when working with configuration data. I have used this class in one of my project to store arbitrary configuration data just like windows registry data.

File: rayarray.php

<?php

/**Ray

Array arrays utility class

* *

*

This class provides configuration array handling funcionalities,

* may be usefull when dealing with configuration data. *

*

* Usage: using this class you can convert a multidimensio

nal configuration

array into a single dimension array ready to store into

sql table/ flat file. * * methods available are *  - shorten() - static *  - unshorten() - static *  - subarray() - static *

raynux.com * @website

* @package     raynux * @subpackage  raynux.lab.array * @version     1.0 * @author      Md. Rayhan Chowdhury * @email       ray
@     www.raynux.com * @license     GPL */ class RayArray{ /**

array concatenating all keys with separator. * * @example array('country' => array(0 => array('name' => '

* Shorten an multidimensional array into a single dimensional
Bangladesh', 'capital' => 'Dhaka'))) *          to array('country.0.name' => 'Bangladesh', 'country.0.capital' => 'Dhaka') *

@param string $separator, array key path separator * @return array, single dim

* @param array $inputArray, arrays to be marged into a single dimensional array * @param string $path, Default Initial path
*ensional array with key and value pair * @access public * @static */ static public function shorten(array $inputArray, $path = null, $separator = "."){ $data = array(); if (!is_null($path)) {

} else { $data =

$path = $path . $separator; } if (is_array($inputArray)) { foreach ($inputArray as $key => &$value) { if (!is_array($value)) { $data[$path . $key] = $value;
array_merge($data, self::shorten($value, $path . $key, $separator)); } } } return $data; } /** * Unshorten a single dimensional array into multidimensional array. *

aram array $data data to be converted into multidimensional array * @param string

* @example array('country.0.name' => 'Bangladesh', 'country.0.capital' => 'Dhaka') *          to array('country' => array(0 => array('name' => 'Bangladesh', 'capital' => 'Dhaka'))) * * @
p$separator key path separator * @return array multi dimensional array * @access public * @static */ static public function unshorten($data, $separator = '.'){ $result = array(); foreach ($data as $key => $value){ if(strpos($key, $separator) !== false ){

lue)?  self::unshorten($value, $separator) :

$str = explode($separator, $key, 2); $result[$str[0]][$str[1]] = $value; if(strpos($str[1], $separator)){ $result[$str[0]] = self::unshorten($result[$str[0]], $separator); } }else{ $result[$key] = is_array($v
a$value; } } return $result; } /** * Get part of array from a multidimensional array specified by concatenated keys path. * * @example *          path = "0.name" *          data = *          array( *                  array('name' => array('Bangladesh', 'Srilanka', 'India', 'Pakistan')),

' * @return mixed and return NULL if not found.

*                  array('help' => 'help.php'), *                  'test' => 'value', *                  10 => *          false) *          will return array('Bangladesh', 'Srilanka', 'India', 'Pakistan') * @param string $path * @param array $data * @param string $separator path separator default '
. * @access public * @static */ static public function subarray($path, &$data, $separator = '.') { if (strpos($path, $separator) === false) { if (isset($data[$path])) { return $data[$path]; } } else { $keys = explode($separator, $path, 2); if (array_key_exists($keys[0], $data)) {

return self::subarray($keys[1], $data[$keys[0]], $separator); } } } }

?>

Please drop me a line if you find this class useful or you have a different opinion.