PHP: array to object

gistfile1.php

<?php

# Simple loop copy
function loop_copy($array) {
	$object = new stdClass();
	foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
		$object->$key = $value;
	}
}

# leveraging json_decode + json_encode
function json_copy($array) {
	json_decode(json_encode($array), FALSE);
}

# http://pear.php.net/package/Benchmark/
# http://pear.php.net/package/Benchmark/docs/1.2.9/Benchmark/Benchmark_Timer.html
require 'Benchmark/Timer.php';

# prepare the arrays to be copied
$sizes = array(5, 20, 100, 500);
$arrays = array();
foreach ($sizes as $size) {
	$array = array();
	$i = $size;
	while ($i-- >= 0) {
		$key = uniqid('key');
		$array[$key] = uniqid('value');
	}
	$arrays[] = $array;
}

# Prepare timer and iterations
$itera = array(100, 500, 1000);
foreach ($itera as $i) {

	foreach ($arrays as $array) {

		$array_len = count($array);

		$timer = new Benchmark_Timer(TRUE);

		$x = $i;
		while ($x-- >= 0) {
			json_copy($array);
		}
		$timer->setMarker("json_copy with $i copies of array size $array_len");

		$x = $i;
		while ($x-- >= 0) {
			loop_copy($array);
		}
		$timer->setMarker("loop_copy with $i copies of array size $array_len");


		$timer->display();
	}
}

If we change line #7 from
$object->$key = $value
into
$object->$key = (is_array($value) ? loop_copy($value) : $value)

Then the loop_copy will be recursive. Correct me If I'm wrong.

You'd have to make a few other changes to make it truly recursive (ie, handle is_object($value) too) but yeah -- could totally make it recursive

That said bear in mind :)