How to loop through and clean a recursive array (PHP)

Question

I'm struggling with the final step on a function that I am writing to clean up a multi-dimensional array. I want the function to loop through the array (and any sub-arrays) and then return a cleaned array.

Whilst I can use array_walk_recursive to output the cleaned data, I'm struggling with returning the data as an array in the same structure as the inputted. Can anyone help? Any help greatly appreciated....

Here's my code:

function process_data($input){
    function clean_up_data($item, $key)
    {
        echo strip_tags($item) . ' '; // This works and outputs all the cleaned data
        $key = strip_tags($item);     // How do I now output as a new array??
        return strip_tags($item);
    }
    array_walk_recursive($input, 'clean_up_data');
}

$array = process_data($array);  // This would be the ideal usage
print_r($array);  // Currently this outputs nothing

You want to return an array with all the "$key"s (not multidimensional) array? — djot
– djot, Commented Sep 9, 2013 at 10:20
how about not wrapping a function definition in a callable function and just use &$item, &$key in your callback (check the examples in the manual). This is where references might just prove useful — Elias Van Ootegem
– Elias Van Ootegem, Commented Sep 9, 2013 at 10:23
@djot I would like to return the array with the same multidimensional structure as inputted. All the function would do is clean the data... — user2761030
– user2761030, Commented Sep 9, 2013 at 10:24

Alireza Fallah · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-09 10:31:16Z

2

you can use array_walk_recursive like that :

<?php
$arr = array(...);
function clean_all($item,$key)
{
$item = strip_tags($item);
}
array_walk_recursive($arr , 'clean_all');
?>

OR :

this is a recursive function , i think it solves your problem :

<?php
    function clean_all($arr)
    {
    foreach($arr as $key=>$value)
    {
       if(is_array($value)) $arr[$key] = clean_all($value);
       else  $arr[$key] = strip_tags($value);
    }
    return $arr;
    }

     ?>

edited Sep 9, 2013 at 10:31

answered Sep 9, 2013 at 10:24

Alireza Fallah

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DevZer0 · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-09 10:23:42Z

2

you need to pass the value by reference

function clean_up_data(&$item, $key)

answered Sep 9, 2013 at 10:23

DevZer0

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