<?php 
$config = array( 
 'project|page|index' => 'content', 
 'project|page|nav' => array( 
 array( 
 'image' => '1.jpg', 
 'name' => 'home' 
 ), 
 array( 
 'image' => '2.jpg', 
 'name' => 'about' 
 ) 
 ), 
 'project|page|open' => true 
); 
?>

<?php 
$result = array( 
 'project' => array( 
 'page' => array( 
 'index' => 'content', 
 'nav' => array( 
  array( 
  'image' => '1.jpg', 
  'name' => 'home' 
  ), 
  array( 
  'image' => '2.jpg', 
  'name' => 'about' 
  ) 
 ), 
 'open' => true 
 ) 
 ) 
); 
?> 

<?php 
$config = array( 
 'project|page|index' => 'content', 
 'project|page|nav' => array( 
 array( 
 'image' => '1.jpg', 
 'name' => 'home' 
 ), 
 array( 
 'image' => '2.jpg', 
 'name' => 'about' 
 ) 
 ), 
 'project|page|open' => true 
); 
 
$result = array(); 
foreach($config as $key=>$val){ 
 
 $tmp = ''; 
 $keys = explode('|', $key); 
 
 for($i=0,$len=count($keys); $i<$len; $i++){ 
 $tmp .= "['".$keys[$i]."']"; 
 } 
 
 if(is_array($val)){ 
 eval('$result'.$tmp.'='.var_export($val,true).';'); 
 }elseif(is_string($val)){ 
 eval('$result'.$tmp.'='.$val.';'); 
 }else{ 
 eval('$result'.$tmp.'=$val;'); 
 } 
 
} 
 
print_r($result); 
 
?>