How do I parse tags and attributes into a multidimensional array?

Question

How do I parse the following

{menu id="123"}
  Random text.
  {menu-item id="123"/}
  Random text.
  {menu-item id="123"/}
{/menu}

into an array, like such

Array(
  [menu] => Array(
    [id] => 123
    [children] => Array(
      [menu-item] = Array(
        [id] => 123
      )
      [menu-item] = Array(
        [id] => 123
      )
    )
  )
)

It's similar to HTML. Tags that do not have a closing tag are self-closed.

you should format your string before parse it..see the JSON syntax — Sudip
– Sudip, Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 7:46
Without JSON, you should manually break it with explode() as a string and push it to array...that's the limit.. — Sudip
– Sudip, Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 7:54
@Tushar I've done it the preg_match way, but I'd like to learn a better way. — Timofey Drozhzhin
– Timofey Drozhzhin, Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 7:55

Michel Feldheim · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-21 07:56:37Z

2

Mmh - if this is like html you could try and treat it like XML and use simplexml.

Lets give it a try:

$xmlData = str_replace( array( '{', '}' ), array( '<', '>' ), $sourceData );
$xmlObj = simplexml_load_string( $xmlData );

var_dump( $xmlObj );

The resulting object might not be 100% of the structure you are trying to form, but now that's already much easier to achieve.

Looking forward to your feedback, Have fun!

answered Mar 21, 2013 at 7:56

Michel Feldheim

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2 Comments

Timofey Drozhzhin Over a year ago

That is a great idea! Will try.

Michel Feldheim Over a year ago

You'll actually have to deal with the text which is not in own tags - either wrap it into tags or remove it

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