#melbsf2 Symfony Components: Using the PropertyAccess component (see http://samjarrett.github.io/Symfony2-Components-Presentation/pres.html)

property_access.php

<?php

use Symfony\Component\PropertyAccess\PropertyAccess;

function getData($items, $columns) {
  $accessor = PropertyAccess::createPropertyAccessor();
  $rows = array();
  
  foreach ($items as $item) {
    $rows[] = array_map(function ($path) use ($item, $accessor) {
      return $accessor->getValue($item, $path);
    }, $columns);
  }
  
  return $rows;
}

$allowedColumns = array('[firstName]', '[lastName]');
$data = array(
  array('id' => 1, 'firstName' => 'Paul', 'lastName' => 'Stanley'),
  array('id' => 2, 'firstName' => 'Gene', 'lastName' => 'Simmons'),
  array('id' => 3, 'firstName' => 'Ace', 'lastName' => 'Frehley'),
  array('id' => 4, 'firstName' => 'Peter', 'lastName' => 'Criss'),
);

$viewData = getData($data, $allowedColumns);