How to Flatten a Multidimensional Array?

In PHP 5.6 and above you can flatten two dimensional arrays with array_merge after unpacking the outer array with ... operator. The code is simple and clear.

array_merge(...$a);

This works with collection of associative arrays too.

$a = [[10, 20], [30, 40]];
$b = [["x" => "A", "y" => "B"], ["y" => "C", "z" => "D"]];

print_r(array_merge(...$a));
print_r(array_merge(...$b));

Array
(
    [0] => 10
    [1] => 20
    [2] => 30
    [3] => 40
)
Array
(
    [x] => A
    [y] => C
    [z] => D
)

In PHP 8.0 and below, array unpacking does not work when the outer array has non numeric keys. Support for unpacking array with string keys is available from PHP 8.1. To support 8.0 and below, you should call array_values first.

$c = ["a" => ["x" => "A", "y" => "B"], "b" => ["y" => "C", "z" => "D"]];
print_r(array_merge(...array_values($c)));

Array
(
    [x] => A
    [y] => C
    [z] => D
)

Update: Based on comment by @MohamedGharib

This will throw an error if the outer array is empty, since array_merge would be called with zero arguments. It can be be avoided by adding an empty array as the first argument.

array_merge([], ...$a);

The Laravel helper for flattening arrays is Arr::flatten()

I believe this is the cleanest solution without using any mutations nor unfamiliar classes.

<?php

function flatten($array)
{
    return array_reduce($array, function($acc, $item){
        return array_merge($acc, is_array($item) ? flatten($item) : [$item]);
    }, []);
}


// usage
$array = [1, 2, [3, 4], [5, [6, 7]], 8, 9, 10];
print_r(flatten($array));

If you want to keep also your keys that is solution.

function flatten(array $array) {
    $return = array();
    array_walk_recursive($array, function($value, $key) use (&$return) { $return[$key] = $value; });
    return $return;
}

Unfortunately it outputs only final nested arrays, without middle keys. So for the following example:

$array = array(
    'sweet' => array(
        'a' => 'apple',
        'b' => 'banana'),
    'sour' => 'lemon'); 
print_r(flatten($fruits));

Output is:

Array
(
    [a] => apple
    [b] => banana
    [sour] => lemon
)

How about using a recursive generator? https://ideone.com/d0TXCg

<?php

$array = [
    'name' => 'Allen Linatoc',
    'profile' => [
        'age' => 21,
        'favourite_games' => [ 'Call of Duty', 'Titanfall', 'Far Cry' ]
    ]
];

foreach (iterate($array) as $item) {
    var_dump($item);
};

function iterate($array)
{
    foreach ($array as $item) {
        if (is_array($item)) {
            yield from iterate($item);
        } else {
            yield $item;
        }
    }
}

From PHP v7.4, you can use the spread operator and merge the arrays. Simple and effective.

$flatArr = array_merge(...$originalArray);

Anyone looking for a really clean solution to this; here's an option:

Taking an array of arrays with various key value configurations:

$test_array = array(
    array('test' => 0, 0, 0, 0),
    array(0, 0, 'merp' => array('herp' => 'derp'), 0),
    array(0, 0, 0, 0),
    array(0, 0, 0, 0)
);
$it = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveArrayIterator($test_array));
var_dump( iterator_to_array($it, false) ) ; 

This will take only the values from each array and return a single flat array.

Output of values in result:

0 0 0 0 0 0 derp 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

If you want to keep intermediate keys:

function flattenArray(array &$result, $value, string $key = "")
{
    if (!is_array($value)) {
        $result[$key] = $value;
        return $result;
    }
    foreach ($value as $subKey => $subArray) {
        $newKey = $key !== "" ? $key . "_" . $subKey : $subKey;
        flattenArray($result, $subArray, $newKey);
    }
    return $result;
}

$nestedArray = [
    "name" => "John",
    "pets" => [
        ["id" => 1, "name" => "snooop"],
        ["id" => 2, "name" => "medor"],
    ],
    "job" => ["title" => "developper"],
];

$intermediateResult = [];
$flattened = flattenArray($intermediateResult, $nestedArray);
var_dump($flattened);

This will output:

array(6) {
["name"]=>
  string(4) "John"
        ["pets_0_id"]=>
  int(1)
  ["pets_0_name"]=>
  string(6) "snooop"
        ["pets_1_id"]=>
  int(2)
  ["pets_1_name"]=>
  string(5) "medor"
        ["job_title"]=>
  string(10) "developper"
}

See https://ideone.com/KXLtzZ#stdout

Here's a simplistic approach:

$My_Array = array(1,2,array(3,4, array(5,6,7), 8), 9);

function checkArray($value) {
    foreach ($value as $var) {
        if ( is_array($var) ) {
            checkArray($var);
        } else {
            echo $var;
        }
    }
}

checkArray($My_Array);