How to Flatten a Multidimensional Array?

Question

Is it possible, in PHP, to flatten a (bi/multi)dimensional array without using recursion or references?

I'm only interested in the values so the keys can be ignored, I'm thinking in the lines of array_map() and array_values().

Answer 1

You can use the Standard PHP Library (SPL) to "hide" the recursion.

$a = array(1,2,array(3,4, array(5,6,7), 8), 9);
$it = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveArrayIterator($a));
foreach($it as $v) {
  echo $v, " ";
}

prints

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9