Fatal error: Cannot use string offset as an array

Question

  Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [auth_id] => 1
            [auth_section] => Client Data Base
            [auth_parent_id] => 0
            [auth_admin] => 1
            [sub] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [auth_id] => 2
                            [auth_section] => Client Contact
                            [auth_parent_id] => 1
                            [auth_admin] => 1
                        )

                )

        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [auth_id] => 6
            [auth_section] => All Back Grounds
            [auth_parent_id] => 0
            [auth_admin] => ,4
            [sub] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [auth_id] => 7
                            [auth_section] => Edit Custom
                            [auth_parent_id] => 6
                            [auth_admin] => 1
                        )
                )

        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [auth_id] => 20
            [auth_section] => Order Mail
            [auth_parent_id] => 0
            [auth_admin] => 1
            [sub] => 
        )

}

When I process the sub inner array

for($in=0 ; $in < count($auth); $in++){

    $autsub     =   $auth[$in]["sub"];

    for($g=0 ; $g<count($autsub); $g++){

        echo $autsub[$g]["auth_id"];

    }
}

it shows this error Fatal error: Cannot use string offset as an array......... how can I avoid that :(

Answer 1

You can test the offset type with the is_array() function. If you want a better answer, post the processing code. Test if $auth[$in] and $autsub[$g] are arrays.

Answer 2

The problem is that the last entry in the array (2) does not have a sub array, but you're trying to access it anyway. You'll need to check if the entry exists and if it's an array before looping over it. Here an example using foreach:

foreach ($array as $auth) {
    if (!empty($auth['sub']) && is_array($auth['sub'])) {
        foreach ($auth['sub'] as $sub) {
            if (!empty($sub['auth_id'])) {
                echo $sub['auth_id'];
            }
        }
    }
}