Dynamically create a multidimensional array from an array of keypath values and a terminating value

Question

What is the easiest way to create multi-dimensional array in php dynamically?

Here a static version:

$tab['k1']['k2']['k3'] = 'value';

I would like to avoid eval().
I'm not successful with variable variable ($$)
so I'm trying to develop a function fun with such a signature:

$tab = fun($tab, array('k1', 'k2', 'k3'), 'value');

Answer 1

There are a number of ways to achieve this, but here is one which uses PHP's ability to have N arguments passed to a function. This gives you the flexibility of creating an array with a depth of 3, or 2, or 7 or whatever.

// pass $value as first param -- params 2 - N define the multi array
function MakeMultiArray()
{
    $args = func_get_args();
    $output = array();
    if (count($args) == 1)
        $output[] = $args[0]; // just the value
    else if (count($args) > 1)
    {
        $output = $args[0];
        // loop the args from the end to the front to make the array
        for ($i = count($args)-1; $i >= 1; $i--)
        {
            $output = array($args[$i] => $output);
        }
    }
    return $output;
}   

Here's how it would work:

$array = MakeMultiArray('value', 'k1', 'k2', 'k3');

And will produce this:

Array
(
    [k1] => Array
        (
            [k2] => Array
                (
                    [k3] => value
                )
        )
)