php recursive function for genealogical tree

Question

I have in database people with relation to parents and I need to create recursive function which return array with genealogical tree. Database example:

NUMBER;NAME;FATHER;MOTHER
001;Name1;002;005
002;Name2;007;018
003;Name3;018;025
005;Name5;006;019
023;Name23;019;045
018;Name18;062;097
007;Name7;;-
...

I prepared two functions - first for man detail and second recursive for search ancestors.

I need this result:

$out[0][0] // first person
$out[1][0] // mother of first person
$out[1][1] // father of first person
$out[2][0] // grandmother of first person (mother side)
$out[2][1] // grandfather of first person (mother side)
$out[2][2] // grandmother of first person (father side)
$out[2][3] // grandmother of first person (father side)
...

next generation have 8 items, next 16 items, ... Maximum is 6 generations back.

I prepared two functions - first for man detail and second recursive for tree building. In second function

define("MAX_GEN",5);

function detail($number) {
    $d = mysql_query("select * from table where number = '$number'");
    if(mysql_num_rows($d) == 0) {
        $p[name] = "N/A";
        $p[number] = "N/A";
        $p[m_number] = "N/A";
        $p[f_number] = "N/A";
    }
    else $p = mysql_fetch_assoc($d);
    return $p;
}

function gen($number, $generation = 0, $out) {

    if ($generation >= MAX_GEN) {
        return false;
    }

    $record = detail($number);

    if ($generation == 0) $out[0][] = $record; // first man

    $generation++; // next generation

    if (!$out[$generation] && ($generation != MAX_GEN)) $out[$generation] = array();

    $x_mother = gen($record[m_number], $generation ); // continue with mother
    $x_father = gen($record[f_number], $generation ); // continue with father

    if ($out[$generation]) {
        $out[$generation][] = $x_mother;
        $out[$generation][] = $x_father;
    }
    return $out;
}

But in second function is problem - I don't know how pass array with results to next and next generation. It's still return one element or (after few attempts) it returns array which I want but with inserted arrays between generations and result is unusable. Can anyone help me please?

Example of result which I wand is here: http://www.foxterrier.cz/_TM_importy/example.php

Answer 1

I prefer to use iteration to create $out array

instead of gen function

the iteration count increases 1 -> 2 -> 4 ->8

= 2 ^($generation-1)

$parent=$generation-1;
      for($j=0;$j<pow(2,$parent);$j++){

the full code

define("MAX_GEN",5);

function detail($number) {
    $d = mysql_query("select * from table where number = '$number'");
    if(mysql_num_rows($d) == 0) {
        $p[name] = "N/A";
        $p[number] = "N/A";
        $p[m_number] = "N/A";
        $p[f_number] = "N/A";
    }
    else $p = mysql_fetch_assoc($d);
    return $p;
}

$main_person_number=001;//number in database
$generation = 0;
$out[0][] =detail($number);// main person
$generation++; // next generation

for($i=1;$i<$MAX_GEN;$i++){
  $parent=$generation-1;
  for($j=0;$j<pow(2,$parent);$j++){
      $record = detail($out[$parent][$j]['number']);
  $out[$generation][] =$record[m_number];
  $out[$generation][] =$record[m_number];
    }
   $generation++;   
}