Vale helps you working with complex data structures. Easily get, set, unset and check the existence of values in deeply nested arrays and objects.

Developed by Florian Eckerstorfer in Vienna, Europe.

• Get, set, unset and check the existence of values in deeply nested arrays and objects
• Works with arbitrary arrays and objects and any combination of them
• Uses getters, setters, unsetters, hassers and issers in objects

$name = Vale::get($families, ['lannister', 'leader', 'children', 2, 'name']);

// This would be equal to the following
$name = null;
if (isset($families['lannister']) && $families['lannister']) {
    if ($families['lannister']->getLeader()) {
        if (isset($families['lannister']->getLeader()->children[2]) && $families['lannister']->getLeader()->children[2]) {
            $name = $families['lannister']->getLeader()->children[2]->name();
        }
    }
}

You can install Vale using Composer:

$ composer require cocur/vale

You can use either the static methods provided by Vale or create an instance of Vale.

use Cocur\Vale\Vale;

$data = ['name' => 'Tyrion'];
Vale::get($data, ['name']); // -> "Tyrion"
Vale::set($data, ['name'], 'Cersei'); // -> ["name" => "Cersei"]
Vale::has($data, ['name']); // -> true
Vale::remove($data, ['name']); // -> []

$vale = new Vale();
$vale->getValue($data, ['name']); // -> "Tyrion"
$vale->setValue($data, ['name'], 'Cersei'); // -> ["name" => "Cersei"]
$vale->hasValue($data, ['name']); // -> true
$vale->removeValue($data, ['name']); // -> []

For flat arrays and objects (that is, arrays and objects with only one level of depth) you can also use a string or integer as key. This works for the static as well as the instance methods.

Vale::get(['name' => 'Tyrion'], 'name'); // -> "Tyrion"
Vale::get(['Tyrion'], 0); // -> "Tyrion"

::get() and ->getValue() return the value of a specified element.

mixed get(mixed $data, array|string|int $keys, mixed $default = null)
mixed getValue(mixed $data, array|string|int $keys, mixed $default = null)

• $data is an arbitrary data structure
• $keys is an array of keys to access the value. If the length is 1, $keys can be a string or int
• $default is the default value that is returned if the value does not exist in $data

Returns the element at the given position or the original $data if $keys is empty.

Vale tries different ways to access the element specified in $keys. The following variants are tried in this order:

1. $data[$key]
2. $data->$key()
3. $data->get$Key()
4. $data->get($key)
5. $data->has$Key()
6. $data->has($key)
7. $data->is$Key()
8. $data->is($key)
9. $data->$key

::set() and ->setValue() set the value of an element at the given position.

mixed set(mixed $data, array|string|int $keys, mixed $value)
mixed setValue(mixed $data, array|string|int $keys, mixed $value)

• $data is an arbitrary data structure
• $keys is an array of keys to access the value. If the length is 1, $keys can be a string or int
• $value is the value for the element

Returns the modified $data

Set utilizes the same means of navigating through nested data structures as Get and tries the following variants to set the value:

1. $data[$key] = $value
2. $data->$key($value)
3. $data->set$Key($value)
4. $data->set($key, $value)
5. $data->$key = $value

::has() and ->hasValue() returns if an element exists

bool has(mixed $data, array|string|int $keys)
bool hasValue(mixed $data, array|string|int $keys)

• $data is an arbitrary data structure
• $keys is an array of keys to access the value. If the length is 1, $keys can be a string or int

Returns true if the element exists, false otherwise.

Has utilizes the same means of navigating through nested data structures as Get and tries the following variants to check the existence of an element:

1. isset($data[$key])
2. isset($data->$key)
3. $data->has$Key()
4. $data->has($key)
5. $data->is$Key()
6. $data->is($key)
7. $data->$key()
8. $data->get$Key()

The variants involving a method call (such as has$Key() or has()) return true if the method returns true or a value that evaluates to true. If the method returns a value that evaluates to false (such as '', 0 or null) then has returns false.

::remove() and ->removeValue() remove an element from the given data structure

mixed remove(mixed $data, array|string|int $keys)
mixed removeValue(mixed $data, array|string|int $keys)

• $data is an arbitrary data structure
• $keys is an array of keys to access the value. If the length is 1, $keys can be a string or int

Returns the modified $data or null if $keys is empty

Remove utilizes the same means of navigating through nested data structures as Get and tries the following variants to remove the element from the data structure:

1. unset($data[$key])
2. unset($data->$key)
3. $data->unset$Key()
4. $data->remove$Key()
5. $data->remove($key)

Please note that unset() is not used, because it is an reserved keyword in PHP.

• Add has() method to check if key exists
• Add remove() method to remove key from item
• Improved navigating through complex structures
• Major refactoring, making the code more reusable and testable

• Initial release

Vale was largely motivated by the need for a simpler, but faster implementation of the Symfony PropertyAccess component. PropertyAccess is great when used in templates or config files, that is, code that is compiled and cached before being executed. However, the heavy use of string parsing and reflection make PropertyAccess not suitable for code that is not compiled. Another source of inspiration was the get-in library by Igor Wiedler for array traversal.

Name: I used A Song of Ice and Fire related strings for testing and due to having to write value quite often, I came up with Vale.

Vale has been developed by Florian Eckerstorfer (Twitter) in Vienna, Europe.

Vale is a project of Cocur. You can contact us on Twitter: @cocurco

The MIT license applies to Vale. For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE file distributed with this source code.