Merge em all
There are quite a few functions and methods available:
Cake's Hash::merge() (former Set::merge) | array_merge() (pretty much the same than Cake's am() function) | array_merge_recursive()
They produce different results. So it's good to know when which of those merging methods should be best used. See for yourself.
The two arrays we want to merge:
Array ( [root] => Array ( [deep1] => Array ( [deeper1a] => value1a [deeper2b] => value2b ) [deep2] => Array ( [0] => deeper1 [1] => deeper2 ) [deep3] => stringX ) ) |
Array ( [root] => Array ( [deep1] => Array ( [deeper1a] => value1a [deeper3b] => value3b ) [deep2] => Array ( [0] => deeper1 [1] => deeper3 ) [deep3] => stringY ) ) |
Notes
- array_merge_recursive() is value oriented. It ignores keys and merge-adds values regardless if they already exist.
- array_merge() is more key oriented. If the same key exists, it will be overwritten.
- Hash::merge() is somewhere in the middle and behaves a little bit more key oriented while trying to keep values as well.