Processing multi-dimensional $_FILES array

Question

I have the following $_FILES array past through for processing from a support form

Array
(
    [file] => Array
        (
            [name] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Test.jpg
                    [1] => Test.doc
                    [2] => Test.php
                    [3] => 
                )

            [type] => Array
                (
                    [0] => image/jpeg
                    [1] => image/jpeg
                    [2] => image/jpeg
                    [3] => 
                )

            [tmp_name] => Array
                (
                    [0] => /tmp/phpCO0vSD
                    [1] => /tmp/phpEFpp3Q
                    [2] => /tmp/phpwN4Iwc
                    [3] => 
                )

            [error] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 0
                    [1] => 0
                    [2] => 0
                    [3] => 4
                )

            [size] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1305787
                    [1] => 339773
                    [2] => 480098
                    [3] => 0
                )

        )

)

My main problem is understanding the logic required in order to process the array, check each file is valid (which I already have a list of valid extensions) then rename and store the file appropriately.

The solutions on Google and SO are both rather complex for my simple requirements.

Answer 1

Here is how you would traverse your array:

foreach ($_FILES['file']['name'] as $key => $name) {
    echo $name;
    echo $_FILES['file']['type'][$key];
    echo $_FILES['file']['tmp_name'][$key];
}

Having this loop you can do what you want easily.

Answer 2

I love foreach() so much, I always go with this...

$files = array();
foreach ($_FILES['files']['name'] as $num_key => $dummy) {
    foreach ($_FILES['files'] as $txt_key => $dummy) {
        $files[$num_key][$txt_key] = $_FILES['files'][$txt_key][$num_key];
    }
}

...and then I use foreach($files as $file) again to work with data nicely. :)

Of course that answer from zerkms is faster, but this is general aproach to reorder array logic for any case - you have to walk it twice (x*y).

Answer 3

Here is a more general solution to seoguru's answer. It works with file input fields whose name contains any level of nested arrays, for example file, file[] (the case for this question), file[english], file[english][], etc.

function rearrangeUploadArray(array $array) {
   if(!is_array(reset($array)))
      return $array;

   $rearranged = [];
   foreach($array as $property => $values)
      foreach($values as $key => $value)
         $rearranged[$key][$property] = $value;

   foreach($rearranged as &$value)
      $value = rearrangeUploadArray($value);

   return $rearranged;
}

I realize that this answer is more complicated than it has to be for this question, but maybe it can be useful for someone sometime. An example use case is a localized upload form, where multiple files can be uploaded for different languages. Then it would make sense to have one file input field for each language, named for example file[english][], file[german][], file[spanish][], etc. rearrangeUploadArray($_FILES['file']) will then return an array on the form

Array
(
    [english] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [name] => ...
                    [type] => ...
                    [tmp_name] => ...
                    [error] => ...
                    [size] => ...
                )

            [1] => Array
                (
                    [name] => ...
                    [type] => ...
                    [tmp_name] => ...
                    [error] => ...
                    [size] => ...
                )

            [...]
        )
    [german] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [name] => ...
                    [type] => ...
                    [tmp_name] => ...
                    [error] => ...
                    [size] => ...
                )

            [...]
        )
    [spanish] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [name] => ...
                    [type] => ...
                    [tmp_name] => ...
                    [error] => ...
                    [size] => ...
                )

            [...]
        )
)