[RESOLVED] multi-dim array based on category levels - almost got it

[cgraz]

I've got a database holding web pages and their parent/child relationships. I made a single query using self joins that returns an array with up to 10 levels deep (not that I'll ever use it, but still). Then I unset all the empty levels, so i have an array (at the moment) that is only three levels deep. What I'd like to do is create a second array out of this array that holds a navigational tree where children are arrays of their parents and both the key and value of the tree array is set to the id in the database.

here's what my array looks like using print_r

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [lev1] => index
        )

[1] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => company
        [lev2] => careers
    )

[2] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => company
        [lev2] => contact
    )

[3] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => solutions
        [lev2] => information-technology
        [lev3] => business-processes
    )

[4] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => solutions
        [lev2] => information-technology
        [lev3] => network-strategy
    )

[5] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => solutions
        [lev2] => information-technology
        [lev3] => virtual-private-networks-vpns
    )

[6] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => solutions
        [lev2] => information-technology
        [lev3] => network-security
    )

[7] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => solutions
        [lev2] => information-technology
        [lev3] => disaster-recovery
    )

[8] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => solutions
        [lev2] => site-development
        [lev3] => internet-strategies
    )

[9] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => solutions
        [lev2] => site-development
        [lev3] => web-sites
    )

[10] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => solutions
        [lev2] => site-development
        [lev3] => intranets
    )

[11] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => solutions
        [lev2] => site-development
        [lev3] => content-management
    )

[12] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => process
    )

[13] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => case-studies
    )

[14] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => get-started
    )

[15] => Array
    (
        [lev1] => index4
    )

)

The problem is that lev1 can be repeated if it has children, and if lev1 does have children, it's included in the array with it's children.

So for example, company isn't included as [lev1] in it's own array, it's shown as

[lev1] => company
[lev2] => careers

next...
[lev1] => company
[lev2] => contact

So the structure is company > careers and company > contact

similary

solutions
information technology
business-processes

represents solutions > information technology > business processes, but this is the first time it defines any of those three, so the two parents were not defined earlier.

It seemed simple enough when I started, but I'm struglling writing a loop that will go down to 10 levels deep and build me a navigational tree from this array with unique levels.

Any help is appreciated.

[jdorsch]

This might work

// Put index into the bit bucket
array_shift($array) ;

// Create a new array
foreach( $array as $item)
{

switch( count($item) )
{
	case 3:
		$newArr['index'][$item['lev1']][$item['lev2']][$item['lev3']] = array() ;
	break;

	case 2:
		$newArr['index'][$item['lev1']][$item['lev2']] = array()  ;
	break;

	case 1:
		$newArr['index'][$item['lev1']] = array() ;
	break;
}

}

You can also do this with eval() based on the count, that is kind of dirty and unreadable, but if your depth is really deep it might be better than a giant switch().

[cgraz]

hey jdorsch,

Thanks for your help. That actually got me very close to what I needed. I didn't see your suggestion to use eval() until just now, but that's what I ended up doing (for the sake of flexibility). With some slight modifiction, i created an array that looks like this:

Array
(
    [index] => index
    [company] => Array
        (
            [careers] => careers
            [contact] => contact
        )

[solutions] => Array
    (
        [information-technology] => Array
            (
                [business-processes] => business-processes
                [network-strategy] => network-strategy
                [virtual-private-networks-vpns] => virtual-private-networks-vpns
                [network-security] => network-security
                [disaster-recovery] => disaster-recovery
            )

        [site-development] => Array
            (
                [internet-strategies] => internet-strategies
                [web-sites] => web-sites
                [intranets] => intranets
                [content-management] => content-management
            )

    )

[process] => process
[case-studies] => case-studies
[get-started] => get-started
)

using this function

	function buildTree( )
	{
		$levels = $this->_grabNav();

	foreach( $levels as $item)
	{
		$string = '$this->tree';

		for($i=1; $i<=count($item); $i++)
		{
			$string .= '[$item[\'lev'.$i.'\']]';
		}

		$string .= ' = $item[lev'.count($item).'];';

		eval($string);
	} 
}

How you set up $newArr was exactly what I was needing. Thanks for your help.