How to recursively build a <select> with unknown tree depth

Question

I have a MySQL table with a tree data structure. The fields are _id, name and parentId. When the record hasn\'t a parent, parent

Answer 1

Your problem is already solved within the SPL. The RecursiveIteratorIteratorDocs has the information about one's item's depth:

$it = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveArrayIterator($array), SELF_FIRST);
foreach ($it as $key => $element)
{
    if ($key !== 'name') continue;
    $inset = str_repeat('--', $it->getDepth());
    printf('<option>%s %s</option>', $inset, $element);
}

Answer 2

My final solution (thanks to Starx and varan):

function toSelect ($arr, $depth=0) {    
    $html = '';
    foreach ( $arr as $v ) {

        $html.= '<option value="' . $v['_id'] . '">';
        $html.= str_repeat('--', $depth);
        $html.= $v['name'] . '</option>' . PHP_EOL;

        if ( array_key_exists('children', $v) ) {
            $html.= toSelect($v['children'], $depth+1);
        }
    }

    return $html;
}

echo '<select>';
echo toSelect($array);
echo '</select>';

Even the RecursiveIteratorIterator solution is good (thanks hakre).

Answer 3

You could pass the length to the function and increment it when you call recursively and then use the variable $length to determine the depth

function toUL ($arr, $length = 0) {

    $html = '<ul>' . PHP_EOL;

    foreach ( $arr as $v ) {

        $html.= '<li>' . $v['name'] . '</li>' . PHP_EOL;

        if ( array_key_exists('children', $v) ) {
            $html.= toUL($v['children'], $length++);
        }

    }

    $html.= '</ul>' . PHP_EOL;

    return $html;
}

This is what i do usually to keep track of recursion depth and it usually get the job done

Answer 4

Pass a parameter to count the iteration like $pass

function toUL ($arr, $pass = 0) {

    $html = '<ul>' . PHP_EOL;

    foreach ( $arr as $v ) {           

        $html.= '<li>';
        $html .= str_repeat("--", $pass); // use the $pass value to create the --
        $html .= $v['name'] . '</li>' . PHP_EOL;

        if ( array_key_exists('children', $v) ) {
            $html.= toUL($v['children'], $pass+1);
        }

    }

    $html.= '</ul>' . PHP_EOL;

    return $html;
}

Answer 5

you can use optgroup as an iterator. For Example:

<select name="list">
  <option value=1>1st option</option>
  <optgroup>
    <option value=10>1st on 1st group</option>
  </optgroup>
</select>

if you want php, you can try this one:

<?PHP
function toSELECT($arr,$depth=0)
{
$html="";
if(is_array($arr))
    {
    $html.=($depth==0)?"<select name='html'>\n":"";
    foreach ($arr as $key=>$value)
        {
        if(is_array($arr[$key]))
            {
            $html.=str_repeat("\t",$depth)."<optgroup>\n";
            $html.=str_repeat("\t",$depth).toHTML($arr[$key],$depth+1);
            $html.=str_repeat("\t",$depth)."</optgroup>\n";
            }
        else
            {
            $html.=str_repeat("\t",$depth)."<option value='".$value."'>".$key."</option>\n";
            }
        }
    $html.=($depth==0)?"</select>\n":"";
    }
return $html;
}

?>

Answer 6

function toSelect($arr, $depth = 0) {

    $html = '';

    foreach ( $arr as $v ) {           

        $html.= '<option>' . str_repeat("--", $depth) . $v['name'] . '</option>' . PHP_EOL;

        if ( array_key_exists('children', $v) ) {
            $html.= toSelect($v['children'], $depth++);
        }

    }


    return $html;
}