Turning string into array indexer

Sykoi

I'm having a bit of a problem - I need to access an array entry (I.e., $array['key']['key2']) with a plain text string ($string = "[key][key2]"), but I'm not sure how to go about doing this... I've attempted to get the keys via regex, but that's not going so well and I'm going a bit insane, so I thought I'd get some help here.

The regex (I'd like to find another method if possible):

preg_match("/^([a-zA-Z0-9]+)(\[([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\])*/", $inputName, $sdf);

Returns:

cat[goes][meow]
0: Array
(
[0] => cat[goes][meow]
[1] => cat
[2] => [meow]
[3] => meow
)

I've tried several variations, but they always result in only one key being matched and returned.

dagon

what's the original sting? have you tried explode()?

Sykoi

The original string is "cat[goes][meow]" but it could be "cat" or "cat[goes]" or "blah[bloo][blee][rawr][etc]". Explode won't work because it's far too slow, sadly.

dagon

what's the source of the string?

Weedpacket

Sykoi wrote:
Explode won't work because it's far too slow, sadly.

Wow! It actually took a detectable amount of time?! How long are these strings?

Sykoi

The source of the string is, well... Complicated, but let's just say it's a a string being passed through a function to make it easy. And no there's no way to pass it as anything else, sadly.

Weedpacket: Yes, regular expressions are faster than explode in this case, namely because it would require several explodes and the string length varies... It could be 3 characters with no need to split it, or it could be 200 characters long with 50 []'s.

Anyways, the problem I'm having right now is that the regex only shows the last match for the second porton of the string, no matter what I use... Preg_match, preg_match_all, ereg, etc.

cat[goes][meow]
0: Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => cat[goes][meow]
[1] => cat
[2] => [meow]
[3] => meow
)

)

Whereas expresso matches (Or at least shows) all:

cat[goes][meow]
1) cat
2): [meow]
->[goes]
->[meow]
3): meow
->goes
->meow

Latest expression I've gotten: ^{([a-zA-Z0-9]+)([([a-zA-Z0-9]+)])*}

Is there any way to either fix the expression so each result is laid out in an accessible way, or make PHP go deeper into the results?

dagon

lets not just say anything, lets see the real string, the real code. I cant imagine there's not a better way of doing this from the outset. It's very hard to work with imaginary values for imaginary code i need to see the real code, the real data to make any suggestions.

Sykoi

The reason why I didn't paste the code, is because it is incredibly intricate, getting data from a file, passing it through a parser, then another function then this function... I gave all the necessary information, and sadly this is where the magic must happen.

I just need to know how to: get preg_match/preg_match_all to return all matches, fix my regex, or find another way of getting PHP to see the string is a variable reference.

Weedpacket

So we're never going to get a chance to see any of these strings or what they should literally result in? I mean, turning

cat[goes][meow]

into the value of

$cat['goes']['meow']

would take two lines (str_replace to add necessary quotes after "[" and before "]", and eval() to evaluate the result) - but that assumes that the format is thoroughly reliable and I know everything about it - which judging from the description I don't. But is that really what you want? It sounds like you're going through a lot of effort to build up a string that you don't actually know what to do with instead of putting that effort into getting at the data you actually want. I mean, these arrays had to have come from somewhere, right?