How to Safely Set Nested Array Values Using a String Path in PHP?

Setting Nested Array Data Using a String Path

In this use case, a string input aims to set a nested array value. For instance:

"cars.honda.civic = On"

This string should result in:

$data'cars'['civic'] = 'On';

While tokenizing the input is straightforward:

$token = explode("=",$input);
$value = trim($token[1]);
$path = trim($token[0]);
$exploded_path = explode(".",$path);

The challenge lies in setting the array without resorting to risky techniques like eval.

Solution

A solution involves utilizing the reference operator (&) to obtain successive existing arrays:

$temp = & $data;
foreach($exploded as $key) {

$temp = & $temp[$key];

}
$temp = $value;
unset($temp);

This method allows you to navigate through nested arrays without hard-coding each level.

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