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15 years ago
We have an array with many objects in a style like

<?php

$step = new StepModel(1); // if the StepModel id is "1"
$demand = $step->getDemand(); // returns DemandModel
$step2 = $demand->getCustomer(); // returns StepModel
$demand2 = $step2->getDemand(); // returns DemandModel

// [ ... ]

?>

$step and $step2 can be the same objects. So we have an recursive array. Now we need to know if $step == $step2 or $step === $step2. In other words: We need to know the php internal resource ids.

Because there is no function in php api, we made the following function.

Be careful: In our case, all objects have as first attribute ["id":protected]. If your objects are different from this, you need to edit $pattern.

Warning: function is very slow and should only be called if it's necessary for debugging reasons:

<?php

/**
 * returns resource- and object-ids of all objects in an array
 * 
 * @param array $array
 * @return array
 */
function getObjectInformation(Array $array)
{
    // start output-buffering
    ob_start();
    
    // create an var_dump of $array
    var_dump($array);
    
    // save the dump in var $dump
    $dump = ob_get_contents();
    
    // clean the output-buffer
    ob_end_clean();
    
    // delete white-spaces
    $dump = str_replace(' ', '', $dump);
    
    // define the regex-pattern
    // in our case, all objects look like this:
    //
    // object(ClassName)#1(1){
    // ["id":protected]=>
    // string(1)"1"
    $pattern  = '/object\(([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\)#([0-9]+)\([0-9]+\){\\n';
    $pattern .= '\["id":protected\]=>\\n';
    $pattern .= 'string\([0-9]+\)"([v]?[0-9]+)"/im';
    
    // search for all matches
    preg_match_all($pattern, $dump, $regs);
    
    // sort all mathes by class name, object id and then resource id
    array_multisort($regs[1], SORT_ASC, SORT_STRING,
                    $regs[3], SORT_ASC, SORT_NUMERIC,
                    $regs[2], SORT_ASC, SORT_NUMERIC);
    
    // cache the last match
    $lastMatch = array();
    
    // the return value
    $return = array();
    
    // loop through the matches
    for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($regs[0]); $i ++) {
        
        // check if the current match was not visited before
        if (0 == sizeof($lastMatch) ||
            $regs[1][$i] != $lastMatch[1] ||
            $regs[2][$i] != $lastMatch[2] ||
            $regs[3][$i] != $lastMatch[3]) {
            
            // save the match in return value
            array_push($return, array($regs[1][$i],
                                      $regs[2][$i],
                                      $regs[3][$i]));
        }
        
        // save match in last match cache
        $lastMatch[1] = $regs[1][$i];
        $lastMatch[2] = $regs[2][$i];
        $lastMatch[3] = $regs[3][$i];
    }
    
    // return all matches
    return $return;
}

?>

I know, it's not that elegant but I hope it's useful for a few people.
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