wppaste
WordPress

_wp_array_set( array $input_array, array $path, mixed $value = null )

Since
5.8.0
Source
wp-includes/functions.php:5166
Sets an array in depth based on a path of keys.

Description

It is the PHP equivalent of JavaScript's lodash.set() and mirroring it may help other components retain some symmetry between client and server implementations.

Example usage:

$input_array = array();
_wp_array_set( $input_array, array( 'a', 'b', 'c', 1 ) );

$input_array becomes:
array(
 'a' => array(
 'b' => array(
 'c' => 1,
 ),
 ),
);

Compatibility

WordPress
since 5.8.0
PHP
7.4–8.6-dev
  • 6.7.7
  • 6.8.8
  • 6.9.7
  • 7.0.4
  • 7.1.0

Present in every tracked release (6.7.7 to 7.1.0), and compiles on PHP 7.4 through 8.6-dev.

Parameters

$input_arrayarray
An array that we want to mutate to include a specific value in a path.
$patharray
An array of keys describing the path that we want to mutate.
$valuemixedoptional
The value that will be set.Default: null

Performance profile

How much work a call to _wp_array_set() does, and what it touches: the algorithmic scaling, the Zend instruction count per call across PHP versions, the hooks it hands control to, and the core code that calls it. Measured from the compiled opcodes, not a stopwatch, so every number is identical on any machine running the same PHP version, and every function in core is ranked by cost.

Cost class
Trivial

Touches nothing outside its own arguments.

Scaling
Scales with input

The body loops, so the work grows with what you pass in.

Instructions
6–22

Executed per call on PHP 8.5, depending on the branch taken. The body compiles to 45.

Plugin surface
None

Nothing here hands control to plugin code.

Called by
21

21 places in core call this, so the cost is paid more often than your own code shows.

What one call costs · 1 distinct outcome

One number would be a lie: the work depends on which branch runs. These are every distinct cost _wp_array_set() can have, taken from its control-flow graph on PHP 8.5.

WhenInstructionsCalls it makes
always6–22none

Across PHP versions

PHPCompiledExecutedBranchesNotes
8.6-dev476–22112 more instructions than PHP 8.5
8.5456–2211
8.4456–2211
8.3456–2211
8.2456–2211
8.1456–2211
7.4456–2211

An instruction is not a fixed amount of time, so a matching count is not necessarily the same speed; what it rules out is a difference in the work itself.

Used by · 21

Show all 21

Source code

View on Trac View on GitHub 

function _wp_array_set( &$input_array, $path, $value = null ) {	// Confirm $input_array is valid.	if ( ! is_array( $input_array ) ) {		return;	} 	// Confirm $path is valid.	if ( ! is_array( $path ) ) {		return;	} 	$path_length = count( $path ); 	if ( 0 === $path_length ) {		return;	} 	foreach ( $path as $path_element ) {		if (			! is_string( $path_element ) && ! is_integer( $path_element ) &&			! is_null( $path_element )		) {			return;		}	} 	for ( $i = 0; $i < $path_length - 1; ++$i ) {		$path_element = $path[ $i ];		if (			! array_key_exists( $path_element, $input_array ) ||			! is_array( $input_array[ $path_element ] )		) {			$input_array[ $path_element ] = array();		}		$input_array = &$input_array[ $path_element ];	} 	$input_array[ $path[ $i ] ] = $value;}

Changelog

Introduced in 5.8.0. Unchanged from 6.7.7 through 7.1.0.

  1. 6.7.7
  2. 6.8.8
  3. 6.9.7
  4. 7.0.4
  5. 7.1.0

Signature, return type and hooks compared across 5 parsed releases.

About this page

Parsed data
Generated from the wordpress-develop 7.0.4 tag, from src/wp-includes/functions.php, and regenerated for each WordPress release so it tracks the code rather than a snapshot of it.
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