PHP: recursion keeps values for variables?

Question

i have a function (below) which is used in my mysql abstraction class and converts table names in fields like "tableName.fieldName" and replaces them with the specified variables (it's useful for joins). the array of fields is very mixed, and so i need it to support recursion so that it can change the table names in an array(array(array("tableName.fieldName"))) but also for the standard array("tableName.fieldName","tableName.field2Name",...)

however, after debugging, i see that the variables $i and $fields_arr are maintaining the same values, even though i pass on a new value for $fields_arr and $i is set at the begining of the loop. how can i make this work so that $i and $fields_arr take the new values i pass for them?

/**
     * @param mixed $fields_arr         standard array ("table.field1","table.field2",...)
     * @param mixed $tables_and_vars    eg. ("table1" => "tableVar1", "table2" => "tableVar2", ...)
     * replaces all tablenames with desired tablevarnames
     */
    private function tablesToTableVars($fields_arr, $tables_and_vars) {
        // loop through every string
        $numFields = count($fields_arr);
        for($i = 0; $i < $numFields; $i++) {
            $field = $fields_arr[$i];
            if(is_numeric($field)) continue; // don't replace numbers
            if(is_array($field)) {
                $fields_arr[$i] = $this->tablesToTableVars($field, $tables_and_vars); // *** RECURSION ***
            } else {
                $tableNameLen = strpos($field, "."); // pos of period in string
                if(strpos($field, ".") === false) continue; // don't replace fields that dont have tablenames

                $searchTableName = substr($field, 0, $tableNameLen); // take 'table' from 'table.field'
                // see if field contains a table
                foreach($tables_and_vars as $tableName => $tableVar) {
                    if($searchTableName === $tableName) { // if it is the table name we're looking for
                        $fields_arr[$i] = $tableVar . substr($field, $tableNameLen); // change it to the variable name
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return $fields_arr;
    }

thanks!

Answer 1

can't use integer indexes for an associative array =)