search for a value in a multi dimensional array an

Question

This is my array:

$array = array (
'1' => array(
  'title' => 'Level1',
  'nodes' => array(
   '11' => array('title' => 'sub1_company1'),
   '12' => array('title' => 'sub2_company1'),
   '13' => array(
     'title' => 'sub3_company1',
     'nodes' => array(
       '131' => array('title' => 'item1_sub3_company1'),
       '132' => array('title' => 'item2_sub3_company1'),
      ),
    ),
  ),
),

'2' => array(
  'title' => 'Level2',
  'nodes' => array(
   '21' => array('title' => 'sub1_company2'),
   '22' => array('title' => 'sub2_company2'),
  ),
),

'3' => array(
  'title' => 'Level3',
  'nodes' => array(
   '31' => array('title' => 'sub1_company3'),
   '32' => array(
     'title' => 'sub2_company3',
     'nodes' => array(
       '321' => array('title' => 'item1_sub2_company3'),
       '322' => array(
          'title' => 'item2_sub2_company3',
          'nodes' => array(
            '3221' => array('title' => 'item1_sub3_company3'),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    ),
  ),
),
'4' => array('title' => 'Level4'),);

What I need is to find sub2_company1 and get the titles like a breadcrumb.

Level1 > sub2_company1

or if I search for item1_sub3_company1 I will get

Level1 > sub3_company1 > item1_sub3_company1

What I did so far but isn't working:

    function breadcrumb($array, $needle) {
  $path = array();

  $array_iterator = new recursiveArrayIterator($array);
  $it = new recursiveIteratorIterator($array_iterator, RecursiveIteratorIterator::SELF_FIRST);

  foreach($it as $key => $value) 
  {
    echo "$key: $value <br>";
    if (!is_array($value)) {
      array_push($path, $value);
    }
    if ($value === $needle) {
      break;
    }
  }

  //$content = '<div id="breadcrumb">' . implode('&nbsp;&#62;&nbsp;', $path) . '</div>';

  return print_r($path, 1);
}

thank you

Answer 1

You need a recursive function, not an iterative one.

function breadcrumb($tree, $needle, &$result = array()) {

    $result = array();

    if (is_array($tree)) {
        foreach ($tree as $node) {
            if ($node['title'] == $needle) {
                $result[] = $node['title'];
                echo '1-';
                return true;
            } else if (!empty($node['nodes'])) {
                if (breadcrumb($node['nodes'], $needle, $result)){
                echo '2-';
                $result[] = $node['title'];
                return true;
                }
            }
        }
    } else {
        if ($tree == $needle) {
            echo '3-';
            $result[] = $tree;
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

breadcrumb($array, 'item1_sub3_company3', $result);

print_r($result);

The breadcrumb is inverted but you could use array_shift instead of push and you would have it the right way...