String Arrays to PHP arrays

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<?php 
echo '<pre>';

class string_array_parser {

	function parse_string($key, $value) {
		// no limit, no empty values in returned array
		$splits = preg_split('[\[|\]]', $key, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);

		// Get the first element, that will be the name of the actual meta key
		$meta_key_name = array_shift($splits);

		// Get the last element, this will be the key for the value
		$last_element_name = array_pop($splits);

		// Set us if not present, but do the check so we don't override preivously set values
		if (!isset($this->$meta_key_name)) {
			$this->$meta_key_name = array();
		}

		// Magic happens here.  Basically it pushes an empty array as a specific key to the last-iterated item of an array.
		$latest_item = &$this->$meta_key_name;
		foreach ($splits as $v) {
			if (!isset($latest_item[$v])) {
				// PHP 5.2 throws warning about array-ness of $latest_item[$v], but still works
				@array_push($latest_item[$v], array());
			}
			$latest_item = &$latest_item[$v];
		}
		$latest_item[$last_element_name] = $value;

	}
}

$a = new string_array_parser;
$a->parse_string('contact[facebook]', 'http://facebook.com');
$a->parse_string('contact[twitter]', 'http://twitter.com');
$a->parse_string('office[1][address1]', '211 S Main St');
$a->parse_string('office[1][city]', 'Smalltown');
$a->parse_string('office[2][address1]', '8125 E 130TH PL');
$a->parse_string('office[2][city]', 'Bigtown');
$a->parse_string('contact[website]', 'http://example.com');
print_r($a);