I realise this is an old question but for the benefit of others that come across it, I solved this myself recently and wanted to share the result
<?php
//Just some setup
header('Content-Type: text/plain');
$account = (object) array(
'email' => 'foo',
'dob'=>((object)array(
'day'=>1,
'month'=>1,
'year'=>((object)array('century'=>1900,'decade'=>0))
))
);
var_dump($account);
echo "\n\n==============\n\n";
//The functions
function &getObjRef(&$obj,$prop) {
return $obj->{$prop};
}
function updateObjFromArray(&$obj,$array){
foreach ($array as $key=>$value) {
if(!is_array($value))
$obj->{$key} = $value;
else{
$ref = getObjRef($obj,$key);
updateObjFromArray($ref,$value);
}
}
}
//Test
updateObjFromArray($account,array(
'id' => '123',
'email' => '[email protected]',
'dob'=>array(
'day'=>19,
'month'=>11,
'year'=>array('century'=>1900,'decade'=>80)
)
));
var_dump($account);
Obviously there are no safeguards built in. The main caveat is that the updateObjFromArray function assumes that for any nested arrays within $array, the corresponding key in $obj already exists and is an object, this must be true or treating it like an object will throw an error.
Hope this helps! :)