how to convert multidimensional array to object in php?

Question

i have a multidimensional array:

$image_path = array('sm'=>$sm,'lg'=>$lg,'secondary'=>$sec_image); 

witch looks like this:

[_media_path:protected] => Array             (                 [main_thumb] => http://example.com/e4150.jpg                 [main_large] => http://example.com/e4150.jpg                 [secondary] => Array                     (                         [0] => http://example.com/e4150.jpg                         [1] => http://example.com/e4150.jpg                         [2] => http://example.com/e9243.jpg                         [3] => http://example.com/e9244.jpg                     )              ) 

and i would like to convert it into an object and retain the key names.

Any ideas?

Thanks

edit: $obj = (object)$image_path; doesn't seem to work. i need a different way of looping through the array and creating a object

Answer 1

A quick way to do this is:

$obj = json_decode(json_encode($array)); 

Explanation

json_encode($array) will convert the entire multi-dimensional array to a JSON string. (php.net/json_encode)

json_decode($string) will convert the JSON string to a stdClass object. If you pass in TRUE as a second argument to json_decode, you'll get an associative array back. (php.net/json_decode)

I don't think the performance here vs recursively going through the array and converting everything is very noticeable, although I'd like to see some benchmarks of this. It works, and it's not going to go away.

Answer 2

The best way would be to manage your data structure as an object from the start if you have the ability:

$a = (object) array( ... ); $a->prop = $value; //and so on 

But the quickest way would be the approach supplied by @CharlieS, using json_decode(json_encode($a)).

You could also run the array through a recursive function to accomplish the same. I have not benchmarked this against the json approach but:

function convert_array_to_obj_recursive($a) {     if (is_array($a) ) {         foreach($a as $k => $v) {             if (is_integer($k)) {                 // only need this if you want to keep the array indexes separate                 // from the object notation: eg. $o->{1}                 $a['index'][$k] = convert_array_to_obj_recursive($v);             }             else {                 $a[$k] = convert_array_to_obj_recursive($v);             }         }          return (object) $a;     }      // else maintain the type of $a     return $a;  } 

Hope that helps.

EDIT: json_encode + json_decode will create an object as desired. But, if the array was numerical or mixed indexes (eg. array('a', 'b', 'foo'=>'bar') ), you will not be able to reference the numerical indexes with object notation (eg. $o->1 or $o[1]). the above function places all the numerical indexes into the 'index' property, which is itself a numerical array. so, you would then be able to do $o->index[1]. This keeps the distinction of a converted array from a created object and leaves the option to merge objects that may have numerical properties.