Finding value in multi-dimensional array

Hi, being somewhat of a noob, I hope I'm using the right language to phrase this question... In a project I am working with, I have a multi-dimensional array in session when a user logs in. Visually, it looks something like this... OBJ_user username => value isAdmin => value modSettings => contacts => array news => array listings => firstname => value lastname => value active => value phone => value gallery => array anothermod => array userID => value js => value I'm trying to check the value of active for an if() statement and can't seem to figure out the correct syntax to get it to work. I've tried if($_SESSION["OBJ_user"]->modSettings["listings"]->active == "1") { then do something; } else { then do something else; } if($_SESSION["OBJ_user"]["modSettings"]["listings"]["active"]) { then do something; } else { then do something else; } if($_SESSION["OBJ_user"]["modSettings"]["listings"]["active"] == "1") { then do something; } else { then do something else; } and none of them work even though I know the session value is there. Any advice as to what I'm doing wrong? Thanks, verdon