Recursive Function | UltraMega Tech.

9Feb/104

PHP: Recursive Functions

A recursive function is a function that calls itself. This is useful for certain applications. This short tutorial will show an example of a recursive function in action.

Let's say we have the following array of categories. Normally this might be stored in a database, but we'll use an array here for simplicity.

/* Example category hierarchy:
    Tutorials
    - PHP
    -- OOP
    -- Tips
    - JavaScript
    -- Basics
    -- Frameworks
    --- jQuery
    --- MooTools
    News
    - PHP
    - Wordpress
*/
$cats = array();
$cats[1] = array('parent' => 0, 'title' => 'Tutorials');
  $cats[2] = array('parent' => 1, 'title' => 'PHP');
    $cats[3] = array('parent' => 2, 'title' => 'OOP');
    $cats[4] = array('parent' => 2, 'title' => 'Tips');
  $cats[5] = array('parent' => 1, 'title' => 'JavaScript');
    $cats[6] = array('parent' => 5, 'title' => 'Basics');
    $cats[7] = array('parent' => 5, 'title' => 'Frameworks');
      $cats[8] = array('parent' => 7, 'title' => 'jQuery');
      $cats[9] = array('parent' => 7, 'title' => 'MooTools');
$cats[10] = array('parent' => 0, 'title' => 'News');
  $cats[11] = array('parent' => 10, 'title' => 'PHP');
  $cats[12] = array('parent' => 10, 'title' => 'Wordpress');

In this case, a good application of a recursive function would be to display a breadcrumbs display of a particular category. In the example, we use the key 'parent' to identify the category that a subcategory belongs to, or 0 for the main categories.

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PHP: Recursive Functions

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