Determining the Depth of Nested Arrays in PHP

Arrays are a versatile data structure in PHP, allowing elements to be stored within other arrays. This feature enables complex data organization, but it can be challenging to determine the maximum level of array nesting within a given structure.

To address this, a function can be devised that calculates the depth of an array, indicating the maximum level of nested arrays. If the array does not contain any nested arrays, it returns 1; if it contains one or more nested arrays, it returns 2; and so on.

Alternative Solution for Infinite Recursion:

One approach to find the array depth is to utilize print_r() to check for infinite recursion. This function generates a string representation of an array, and its output indentation can reveal the structure's depth.

function array_depth($array) {
    $max_indentation = 1;

    $array_str = print_r($array, true);
    $lines = explode("\n", $array_str);

    foreach ($lines as $line) {
        $indentation = (strlen($line) - strlen(ltrim($line))) / 4;

        if ($indentation > $max_indentation) {
            $max_indentation = $indentation;
        }
    }

    return ceil(($max_indentation - 1) / 2)   1;
}

This solution provides an accurate determination of array depth, avoiding the potential pitfalls associated with recursive functions.