Set Recursive PHP Properties

function getRecursiveProperty( $object, $path ) {

  $array = explode( '->', $path );

  if ( empty( $array ) ) {

    return NULL;

  }

  foreach ($array as $i => $property) {

    if( is_numeric( $property ) ) {

        $object = $object[ intval( $property ) ];

    } else {

        if( ! isset( $object->$property ) ) {

            return NULL;

        } elseif( ! is_object( $object->$property ) && ! is_array( $object->$property ) ) {

            return $object->$property;

        } else {

            $object = $object->$property;

        }

    }

  }

  return $object->$property;

}

function setRecursiveProperty($object, $path, $value) {

    $array = explode('->', $path);

  foreach ( $array as $i => $property) {

    if( is_numeric( $property ) ) {

        $object = $object[ intval( $property ) ];

    } else {

        if ( ! isset( $object->$property ) ) {

          return FALSE;

        } elseif ( ! is_object( $object->$property ) && ! is_array( $object->$property ) ) {

          $object->$property = $value;

          return TRUE;

        }

        $object = $object->$property;

    }


  }

  return FALSE;

}