Parse a multi-line string with parent data and indented child data and create a multidimensional array

I am trying to parse a string in PHP:

 -father_name "John" -father_weight 44.50 
    -kid >name "Marko" >age 12
    -kid >name "Sevda" >age 17
    -kid >name "Nathan" >age 19

There are two main FORMS:

1. Attributes (such as -father, -weight, -kid)
2. Sub-Attributes (such as >name, >age)

Note: Attributes are NOT FIXED and NOT ALWAYS SEPERATED BY single space

And their VALUES have two types:

1. String (like "Marko")
2. Int or Decimal (like 12.00)

OUTPUT would be:

[
    'father_name' => 'John',
    'father_weight' => '44.50',
    'kid' => [
        ['name' => "Marko", 'age' => 12],
        ['name' => "Sevda", 'age' => 17],
        ['name' => "Nathan", 'age' => 19]
    ]
]

It should return FORMS (attrs and sub-attrs) and VALUES SEPARATELY.

How can I parse this line in PHP cleverly?

Last Note: Solution I found for this: YAML.

Try with this:

function parse_attributes($string, $separators = array('-','>'), $level = 0){
    $attributes = explode($separators[$level], $string);
    $attrs = array();
    $ret_arr = array();
    foreach($attributes as $attribute){
        if(!empty($attribute)){
            $ex_attr = explode(' ',$attribute);
            if(!empty($ex_attr[1])){
                if(count($separators) > $level && strpos($attribute, $separators[$level+1])){
                    $ret = parse_attributes($attribute, $separators, $level+1);
                    array_push($ret_arr, $ret);
                }
                if (empty($ret_arr))
                    $attrs[$ex_attr[0]] = str_replace('"', '', $ex_attr[1]);
                else
                    $attrs[$ex_attr[0]] = $ret_arr;
            }
        }
    }
    return $attrs;
}

Using:

$returned = parse_attributes('-father_name "John" -father_weight 44.50 -kid >name "Marko" >age 12 -kid >name "Sevda" >age 17 -kid >name "Nathan" >age 19');

print_r($returned);

Returns:

Array
(
    [father_name] => John
    [father_weight] => 44.50
    [kid] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [name] => Marko
                    [age] => 12
                )

            [1] => Array
                (
                    [name] => Sevda
                    [age] => 17
                )

            [2] => Array
                (
                    [name] => Nathan
                    [age] => 19
                )

        )

)

And using:

echo($returned['kid'][0]['name']);

Returns:

Marko

NOTE: You can specify more separator array items, an item for each attribute level you have.

Hope this helps.