How can the use of explode() function be beneficial in managing array key hierarchies in PHP?

When managing array key hierarchies in PHP, the explode() function can be beneficial for breaking a string into an array based on a delimiter. This can be useful when dealing with nested array keys that are represented as a string. By using explode(), you can easily access and manipulate nested array keys.

// Example of how to use explode() to manage array key hierarchies
$array = [
    'first' => [
        'second' => [
            'third' => 'value'
        ]
    ]
];

$key = 'first.second.third';
$keys = explode('.', $key);

$value = $array;
foreach ($keys as $nestedKey) {
    $value = $value[$nestedKey];
}

echo $value; // Output: value