use strings to access (potentially large) multidimensional arrays

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Considering $vars being your variables you would like to get one['one-one'] or two['two-two']['more'] from (Demo):

$vars = function($str) use ($vars)
{
    $c = function($v, $w) {return $w ? $v[$w] : $v;};
    return array_reduce(preg_split('~\[\'|\'\]~', $str), $c, $vars);
};
echo $vars("one['one-one']"); # hello
echo $vars("two['two-two']['more']"); # tea-time!

This is lexing the string into key tokens and then traverse the $vars array on the keyed values while the $vars array has been turned into a function.

Older Stuff:

Overload the array with a function that just eval’s:

$vars = array(
    'one' => array(
        'one-one' => "hello",
        'one-two' => "goodbye"
    ),
    'two' => array(
        'two-one' => "foo",
        'two-two' => "bar"
    )
);

$vars = function($str) use ($vars)
{
    return eval('return $vars'.$str.';');
};

echo $vars("['one']['one-two']"); # goodbye

If you’re not a fan of eval, change the implementation:

$vars = function($str) use ($vars)
{
    $r = preg_match_all('~\[\'([a-z-]+)\']~', $str, $keys);
    $var = $vars;
    foreach($keys[1] as $key)
        $var = $var[$key];
    return $var;
};
echo $vars("['one']['one-two']"); # goodbye

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