A recursive function to sort through parent and child nodes in PHP using a foreach loop on an array

Question

I have a data set stored in an array that references itself with parent-child ids: id, parent_id, title etc. The top tier has a

Answer 1

I doubt that you guys are still looking for a real answer to this, but it might help out others with the same problem. Below is a recursive function to resort an array placing children beneath parents.

$initial = array(
    array(
        'name' => 'People',
        'ID' => 2,
        'parent' => 0
        ),
    array(
        'name' => 'Paul',
        'ID' => 4,
        'parent' => 2
        ),
    array(
        'name' => 'Liz',
        'ID' => 5,
        'parent' => 2
        ),
    array(
        'name' => 'Comus',
        'ID' => 6,
        'parent' => 3
        ),
    array(
        'name' => 'Mai',
        'ID' => 7,
        'parent' => 2
        ),
    array(
        'name' => 'Titus',
        'ID' => 8,
        'parent' => 3
        ),
    array(
        'name' => 'Adult',
        'ID' => 9,
        'parent' => 6
        ),
    array(
        'name' => 'Puppy',
        'ID' => 10,
        'parent' => 8
        ),
    array(
        'name' => 'Programmers',
        'ID' => 11,
        'parent' => 4
        )   ,
    array(
        'name' => 'Animals',
        'ID' => 3,
        'parent' => 0
        )                           
    );


/*---------------------------------
function parentChildSort_r
$idField        = The item's ID identifier (required)
$parentField    = The item's parent identifier (required)
$els            = The array (required)
$parentID       = The parent ID for which to sort (internal)
$result     = The result set (internal)
$depth          = The depth (internal)
----------------------------------*/

function parentChildSort_r($idField, $parentField, $els, $parentID = 0, &$result = array(), &$depth = 0){
    foreach ($els as $key => $value):
        if ($value[$parentField] == $parentID){
            $value['depth'] = $depth;
            array_push($result, $value);
            unset($els[$key]);
            $oldParent = $parentID; 
            $parentID = $value[$idField];
            $depth++;
            parentChildSort_r($idField,$parentField, $els, $parentID, $result, $depth);
            $parentID = $oldParent;
            $depth--;
        }
    endforeach;
    return $result;
}

$result = parentChildSort_r('ID','parent',$initial);

print '
';
print_r($result);
print '
';

It's a wind down method that removes elements from the original array and places them into result set in the proper order. I made it somewhat generic for you, so it just needs you to tell it what your 'ID' field and 'parent' fields are called. Top level items are required to have a parent_id (however you name it) of 0. I also add a depth marker to each item so that you can format on output.