Gets the PHP _POST (or _GET) data with correct handling of nested brackets

get_real_post.php

/**
 * Gets the _POST data with correct handling of nested brackets:
 * "path[to][data[nested]]=value"
 * "path"
 *    -> "to"
 *       -> "data[nested]" = value
 * @return array
 */
function get_real_post() {

	function set_nested_value(&$arr, &$keys, &$value) {
		$key = array_shift($keys);
		if (count($keys)) {
			// Got deeper to go
			if (!array_key_exists($key, $arr)) {
				// Make sure we can get deeper if we've not hit this key before
				$arr[$key] = array();
			} elseif (!is_array($arr[$key])) {
				// This should never be relevant for well formed input data
				throw new Exception("Setting a value and an array with the same key: $key");
			}
			set_nested_value($arr[$key], $keys, $value);
		} elseif (empty($key)) {
			// Setting an Array
			$arr[] = $value;
		} else {
			// Setting an Object
			$arr[$key] = $value;
		}
	}

	$input = array();
	$parts = array();
	$pairs = explode("&", file_get_contents("php://input"));
	foreach ($pairs as $pair) {
		$key_value = explode("=", $pair, 2);
		preg_match_all("/([a-zA-Z0-9]*)(?:\[([^\[\]]*(?:(?R)[^\[\]]*)*)\])?/", urldecode($key_value[0]), $parts);
		$keys = array($parts[1][0]);
		if (!empty($parts[2][0])) {
			array_pop($parts[2]); // Remove the blank one on the end
			$keys = array_merge($keys, $parts[2]);
		}
		$value = urldecode($key_value[1]);
		if ($value == "true") {
			$value = true;
		} else if ($value == "false") {
			$value = false;
		} else if (is_numeric($value)) {
			if (strpos($value, ".") !== false) {
				$num = floatval($value);
			} else {
				$num = intval($value);
			}
			if (strval($num) === $value) {
				$value = $num;
			}
		}
		set_nested_value($input, $keys, $value);
	}
	return $input;
}