PHP - How to build a tree structure list?

Question

So my problem is that I want to build a tree from these two tables:

Parent table:
+-------+---------------+
| pr_id |  parent_name  |
+-------+---------------+
|   1   |       p       |
|   2   |      p_0      | 
|   3   |     p_0_1     | 
|   4   |       q       | 
+-------+---------------+

Child table:
+-------+---------------+---------------------------+
| ch_id |     pr_id     |        child_name         |
+-------+---------------+---------------------------+
|   1   |       1       |            p_0            |
|   2   |       1       |            p_1            |
|   3   |       2       |           p_0_0           |
|   4   |       2       |           p_0_1           |
|   5   |       3       |          p_0_1_0          |
|   6   |       3       |          p_0_1_1          |
|   7   |       4       |            q_0            |
|   8   |       4       |            q_1            |
+-------+---------------+---------------------------+

And the tree should look like this:

• R
  • p_0
    • p_0_0
    • p_0_1
      • p_0_1_0
      • p_0_1_1
• d

Can someone help me with a recursive solution?

Answer 1

You do not need to create 2 tables in the database, for this you can support it, as shown below, with only one table

+-------+---------------+---------------------------+
|   id  |   parent_id   |           title           |
+-------+---------------+---------------------------+
|   1   |       0       |   Parent Page             |
|   2   |       1       |   Sub Page                |
|   3   |       2       |   Sub Sub Page            |
|   4   |       0       |   Another Parent Page     |
+-------+---------------+---------------------------+

The created array will look like

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [id] => 1
            [parent_id] => 0
            [title] => Parent Page
            [children] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => Array
                                (
                                    [id] => 2
                                    [parent_id] => 1
                                    [title] => Sub Page
                                    [children] => Array
                                                (
                                                    [0] => Array
                                                        (
                                                            [id] => 3
                                                            [parent_id] => 1
                                                            [title] => Sub Sub Page
                                                        )
                                                )
                                )
                        )
        )
    [1] => Array
        (
            [id] => 4
            [parent_id] => 0
            [title] => Another Parent Page
        )
)

To achieve this, you need to use a recursive function

function buildTree(array $elements, $parentId = 0) {
    $branch = array();

    foreach ($elements as $element) {
        if ($element['parent_id'] == $parentId) {
            $children = buildTree($elements, $element['id']);
            if ($children) {
                $element['children'] = $children;
            }
            $branch[] = $element;
        }
    }

    return $branch;
}

$tree = buildTree($rows);

The algorithm is pretty simple:

• Take an array of all elements and the identifier of the current parent (initially 0 / nothing / null / whatever).
• Scroll through all the items.
• parent_id , 1., .   (: $branch).
• , 3., .. ,    .
• .