[SOLVED] Loop over an array of unknown depth

Loop over an array of unknown depth

How to loop an array if the data is 1 level or more than 1 level?

I tried it with

foreach ($array['bGeneral'] as $item) {
    echo $item['bItem'];
}

but for arrays that have 1 level of data an error occurs.

Solution

Basically you need to check if the first element of $array['bGeneral'] is an array or a data value, and if so, process the data differently. You could try something like this:

if (isset($array['bGeneral']['bItem'])) {
    // only one set of values
    $item = $array['bGeneral'];
    // process item
}
else {
    // array of items
    foreach ($array['bGeneral'] as $item) {
        // process item
    }
}

To avoid duplication of code, you will probably want to put the item processing code in a function.

Alternatively you could create a multi-dimensional array when you only have one value and then continue processing as you do with multiple values:

if (isset($array['bGeneral']['bItem'])) {
    $array['bGeneral'] = array($array['bGeneral']);
}
foreach ($array['bGeneral'] as $item) {
    // process item
}