Determine if specific value exists in any level of a multidimensional array

For this nested array:

$status = array(
  "house" => "OK",
  "car" => array(
      "car1" => "OK",
      "car2" => "ERROR"
   ),
   "boat" => "OK"
);

I want to know if a certain value “ERROR” exists at least once in the array. I don’t care what key it’s associated with, I just want to know if the $status array contains an “ERROR” status anywhere in it.

Is there a cleaner way to do this than just iterating over the elements with nested for loops?

Answer

You could use the function array_walk_recursive() to get all the values with any level of nested array.

https://secure.php.net/manual/en/function.array-walk-recursive.php

<?php
$status = array(
    "house" => "OK",
    "car" => array(
        "car1" => "OK",
        "car2" => "OK"
    ),
    "boat" => "OK"
);

$required = array();
array_walk_recursive($status, function ($value, $key) use (&$required){
    $required[] = $value;
}, $required);
print '<pre>';
print_r($required);
print '</pre>';
?>

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => OK
    [1] => OK
    [2] => OK
    [3] => OK
)