How to use a variable variable in an array walk?

Dear list, this is my first post to the PHP general list. I have an issue with a variable variable (http://php.net/manual/en/language.variables.variable.php) My use case: I have an array called $myArray. The structure is as following: array(1) { ["user_interface"]=> array(1) { ["design"]=> array(1) { [“my_colors"]=> array(5) { ["item_number_one"]=> string(6) "red" ["item_number_two"]=> string(40) '["user_interface"]["design"]["my_colors"]["item_number_one"]' } } } } As you can see, the item_number_one has no direct color value assigned but the structure of the path to item_number_one in the $myArray variable. I tried with array_wal_resursive. During this step (the array building is completed) I want to find these values (I use a static value in my example, in the real code I will use regular expressions) and assign the value of the virtually related item to the considered item. So in my example above, I want to have the following values after the process is done: $myArray[user_interface][design][my_colors][item_mumber_one] = red; // this is item number 1 $myArray[user_interface][design][my_colors][item_mumber_two] = red; // this should be item number 2 The second issue here is, how do I evaluate at which point the process is exactly, because the value and the key that is transferred to the function by array_walk_recursive has only the value itself but not array path to the current item. Any idea how get this done? Or am I too complicated maybe? I tried several combinations of ${$var}, $myArray{$var}, {$myArray}{$var} ... and many more. Any help is much much appreciated! Merry X-mas greeting from Indianapolis Cheers, Nils -- http://webint.cryptonode.de / a Fractal project