#!/usr/local/bin/php -q array( 'sql' => 119, 'fatal' => 8, 'reported' => 15 ) ); function pimpmyarray(&$a,$depth){ foreach($a as $k=>$v){ if (is_array($v)){ $v=pimpmyarray($v,$depth+1); } else { if ($k=='fatal'){ print $k; print $v; print "\n"; $a[$k]=5; } } } print_r($a); return $v; } echo "Input array: "; print_r($array); echo "Output array: "; print_r(pimpmyarray($array,0)); ?>