PHP Recursively export array into 'horizontal' code

Question

I regularly have to pick certain values out of a large array. While I understand my way of doing this is probably not the absolute right way, but in this system it is the way I should do it.

Example (simplified) array:

$data = array (
  'api' => 
  array (
    'update_id' => 94594942,
    'message' => 
    array (
      'message_id' => 141,
      'from' => 
      array (
        'id' => 1251597,
        'first_name' => 'Testuser',
      ),
      'chat' => 
      array (
        'id' => '124630',
        'title' => 'TESTGROUP',
        'type' => 'group',
      ),
      'date' => '1460712410',
      'text' => 'tryout',
      'valid' => true,
    ),
    'list' => 
    array (
      0 => 'one',
      1 => 'two',
      2 => 'three',
    ),
  ),
);

My desired export/dump as a plain string:

$result = "
  data['api']['update_id'] = 94594942;
  data['api']['message']['message_id'] = 141;
  data['api']['message']['from']['id'] = 1251597;
  data['api']['message']['from']['first_name'] = 'Testuser';
  data['api']['message']['chat']['id'] = '124630';
  data['api']['message']['chat']['title'] = 'TESTGROUP';
  data['api']['message']['chat']['type'] = 'group';
  data['api']['message']['date'] = '1460712410';
  data['api']['message']['text'] = 'tryout';
  data['api']['message']['valid'] = true;
  data['api']['list'][] = 'one';
  data['api']['list'][] = 'two';
  data['api']['list'][] = 'three';
 ";

I'm calling it a 'horizontal' array representation - I don't quite know what's the official name for it.

I've tried to convert the array with json_encode() and var_export(), and manually parse it, but it doesn't seem to be the right way to do it and gives me headaches. Any tips?

Basically you are trying to convert your multi-dimensional data to a single record? You should create transformer class which maps your structured data to a single dimension key->value array. — Lauri Orgla
– Lauri Orgla, Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 9:59
I've updated the 2nd code part. My result should be a plain text string. I guess you could call it a var_export($data, true); with a different template. — EDP
– EDP, Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 10:04
What is it exactly you are trying to do? Why is the exporting required in the first place? Do you import it later? — Lauri Orgla
– Lauri Orgla, Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 10:06
@LauriOrgla 5,000 lines of deeply multi dimensional data where I just need to take out 3, to hardcode them into a simple script. Anyway, accepted answer below is exactly what I needed. — EDP
– EDP, Commented Apr 15, 2016 at 10:23

Ocean · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-15 10:17:31Z

You can use following function:

<?php
$data = array (
  'api' => 
  array (
    'update_id' => 94594942,
    'message' => 
    array (
      'message_id' => 141,
      'from' => 
      array (
        'id' => 1251597,
        'first_name' => 'Testuser',
      ),
      'chat' => 
      array (
        'id' => '124630',
        'title' => 'TESTGROUP',
        'type' => 'group',
      ),
      'date' => '1460712410',
      'text' => 'tryout',
      'valid' => true,
    ),
    'list' => 
    array (
      0 => 'one',
      1 => 'two',
      2 => 'three',
    ),
  ),
);

function convertHorizontal($parent, $source) {
    if (!is_array($source)) {
        return "$parent = " . var_export($source, true) . "\n";
    }
    
    $result = '';
    foreach($source as $key => $value) {
        $result .= convertHorizontal("{$parent}[\"$key\"]", $value);
    }

    return $result;
}

$result = convertHorizontal("\$data", $data);
print $result;
$result = convertHorizontal("\$data", $data);
print $result

And you get following result:

$data["api"]["update_id"] = 94594942
$data["api"]["message"]["message_id"] = 141
$data["api"]["message"]["from"]["id"] = 1251597
$data["api"]["message"]["from"]["first_name"] = 'Testuser'
$data["api"]["message"]["chat"]["id"] = '124630'
$data["api"]["message"]["chat"]["title"] = 'TESTGROUP'
$data["api"]["message"]["chat"]["type"] = 'group'
$data["api"]["message"]["date"] = '1460712410'
$data["api"]["message"]["text"] = 'tryout'
$data["api"]["message"]["valid"] = true
$data["api"]["list"]["0"] = 'one'
$data["api"]["list"]["1"] = 'two'
$data["api"]["list"]["2"] = 'three'

Exactly what I wanted! Just five lines of working code compared with my own page length of unsustainable rubbish.

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