PHP recursive issue

Question

Hi I am trying to find the longest string in the following array:

$niza = array( array(5, 1.15 , 15),
array('unknown', 0.75 , 5, array(2, 'bla', 1.15) ),
array(array('text'), 1.15 , 7)

I am using the following function but I dont get the desired result, the value of $len remains unchanged. Can you help me?

function getLongest($array){
$longest="";
$len=0;

function arrWalk($item){
    global $len;
    global $longest;
    if(is_string($item)) {
        echo $len . "<br>";
        if (strlen($item) > $len) {
            $longest = $item;
            $len = strlen($item);
        }
    }
}

array_walk_recursive($array,'arrWalk');

echo $len;

}

arrWalk($niza);

I suppose `array_reduce()` would be more appropriate – phaberest Nov 05 '16 at 11:17 — phaberest, Nov 05 '16 at 11:17
I think `getLongest($arr)` is never being called. – MH2K9 Nov 05 '16 at 11:21 — MH2K9, Nov 05 '16 at 11:21

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 05 '16 at 11:33

To get longest string element from array you can use below the recursive function.

$niza = array(
    array(5, 1.15 , 15),
    array(
        'unknown', 0.75 , 5,
        array(2, 'bla', 1.15)
    ),
    array(array('text'), 1.15 , 7)
);

$longestString = '';
function getLongestString( $param )
{
    global $longestString;

    if ( is_array($param) )
    {
        foreach ($param as $val)
        {
            if ( is_string($val) && strlen($val) > strlen($longestString) )
            {
                $longestString = $val;
            }
            else
            {
                getLongestString( $val );
            }
        }
    }
    elseif ( is_string($param) && strlen($param) > strlen($longestString) )
    {
        $longestString = $param;
    }
}

getLongestString( $niza );

print $longestString;

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 05 '16 at 11:27

Here is the answer!

function array_flatten($array) {
if (!is_array($array)) {
    return FALSE;
}
$result = array();
$i=0;
foreach ($array as $item) {
    if (is_array($item)) {
        $result = array_merge($result, array_flatten($item));
    }
    else if(is_string($item)) {
        array_push($result,$item);
    }
}
return $result;
}


function getLongest($array){
$arr_nivo_1 =array_flatten($array);

$longest="";
$maxLen=0;
foreach ($arr_nivo_1 as $item){
    if(strlen($item)>$maxLen){
        $maxLen=strlen($item);
        $longest=$item;
    }
}
return $longest;


}

And I call getLongest() with the array I have defined :D – Nasi Jofce Nov 05 '16 at 11:28 — Nasi Jofce, Nov 05 '16 at 11:28

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 05 '16 at 11:38

You can simply go with below code that will help to get your expected result

<?php


$niza = array(array(5, 1.15 , 15), array('unknown', 0.75 , 5, array(2, 'bla', 1.15) ), array(array('text'), 1.15 , 7));

$crew = '0'; // assign by default one value that count will be default 1

function getLongest($item, $key)
{
     global $crew;
     if(strlen($item)  >= strlen((string)$crew)){
    $crew = $item;
     }
}

array_walk_recursive($niza, 'getLongest');

echo $crew;
?>

You should take global variable to store lateste value in the variable at recursive state

PHP recursive issue

3 Answers3