PHP Dynamically adding dimensions to an array using for loop

Question

Here is my dilemma and thank you in advance!

I am trying to create a variable variable or something of the sort for a dynamic associative array and having a hell of a time figuring out how to do this. I am creating a file explorer so I am using the directories as the keys in the array.

Example:
I need to get this so I can assign it values

$dir_list['root']['folder1']['folder2'] = value;

so I was thinking of doing something along these lines...

if ( $handle2 = @opendir( $theDir.'/'.$file ))
{
    $tmp_dir_url = explode($theDir);
    for ( $k = 1; $k < sizeof ( $tmp_dir_url ); $k++ )
    {
        $dir_list [ $dir_array [ sizeof ( $dir_array ) - 1 ] ][$tmp_dir_url[$k]]
    }

this is where I get stuck, I need to dynamically append a new dimension to the array durring each iteration through the for loop...but i have NO CLUE how

Answer 1

I would use a recursive approach like this:

function read_dir_recursive( $dir ) {
    $results = array( 'subdirs' => array(), 'files' => array() );
    foreach( scandir( $dir ) as $item ) {
        // skip . & ..
        if ( preg_match( '/^\.\.?$/', $item ) )
            continue;
        $full = "$dir/$item";
        if ( is_dir( $full ) )
            $results['subdirs'][$item] = scan_dir_recursive( $full );
        else
            $results['files'][] = $item;
    }
}

The code is untested as I have no PHP here to try it out.

Cheers,
haggi