php array into combinations [duplicate]

This question is an exact duplicate of:

• All possible combinations in array - recursion? 2 answers

I could crack this one possibly alone, but my mind wonders after Brexit, so I decided to ask these nice people around. I have this array (or SQL results) of hardware options:

cId  cName      vId  vName
1    Processor  679  3.5GHz 6-Core
1    Processor  680  3.0GHz 8-Core
1    Processor  681  2.7GHz 12-Core
2    Memory     682  16GB
2    Memory     683  32GB
2    Memory     684  64GB
5    HDD        685  256GB
5    HDD        686  512GB
5    HDD        687  1TB
11   Graphics   688  D500 with 3GB
11   Graphics   689  D700 with 6GB

and I'm looking for the most effective way to list all combinations of options, starting with

3.5GHz 6-Core, 16GB, 256GB, D500 with 3GB

and ending with

2.7GHz 12-Core, 64GB, 1TB, D700 with 6GB

which is, I believe, 54 lines. Is there a quick way with PHP?

Or in MySQL. The input data are, in fact, in two tables - one table has category ids and names, and another has category ids, value ids, and value names (there are, of course, also model ids for another computers, but let's just stick with this Mac Pro for now).

Edit: Please note that the number of hardware categories is flexible - eg a MacBook could have only Memory and HDD options. The number of categoris should not be limited.

This is much more generalised input:

c1 = array ( v1, v2 )
c2 = array ( v3, v4, v5)

where the number of both categories, or values within a category, is flexible. So this is the result, six combinations of values:

c1 v1, c2 v3
c1 v1, c2 v4
c1 v1, c2 v5
c1 v2, c2 v3
c1 v2, c2 v4
c1 v2, c2 v5

When I add one more category

c3 = array ( v6, v7)

there will be twelve combinations:

c1 v1, c2 v3, c3 v6
c1 v1, c2 v3, c3 v7
c1 v1, c2 v4, c3 v6
c1 v1, c2 v4, c3 v7
c1 v1, c2 v5, c3 v6
c1 v1, c2 v5, c3 v7
c1 v2, c2 v3, c3 v6
c1 v2, c2 v3, c3 v7
c1 v2, c2 v4, c3 v6
c1 v2, c2 v4, c3 v7
c1 v2, c2 v5, c3 v6
c1 v2, c2 v5, c3 v7

The SQL data

are in two tables. The first one describes which hardware categories are available for given computer model:

modelID catID name
1       1     Processor
1       2     Memory
2       1     Processor

so here the computer model 2 has only one option - different processor.

Table two describes which options are available (optID is unique):

modelID catID optID name
1       1     1     i3
1       1     2     i5
1       2     3     4GB
1       2     4     8GB
1       2     5     16GB
2       1     6     i3
2       1     7     i5
2       1     8     i7

So here we can have one computer with six different combinations, and another with three. What I need as an output is a sequence of the combinations, because I will query an API for a SKU and price of these combinations. The query will be something like:

1. select model modelID and reset data (eg ?modelID=1)

2. choose catID and optID (eg ?modelID=1&catID=1&optID=1 is choosing Processor: i3)

3. repeat 2 for all available categories (so here once more with Memory: 4GB)

4. query the SKU and price (so now it would get results for i3, 4 GB)

5. repeat from 1 for all combinations for this model - six times for modelID 1 and three times for modelID 2.

This would be the total list of requests for my table above:

select?modelID=1
choose?modelID=1&catID=1&optID=1
choose?modelID=1&catID=2&optID=3
price?

select?modelID=1
choose?modelID=1&catID=1&optID=1
choose?modelID=1&catID=2&optID=4
price?

select?modelID=1
choose?modelID=1&catID=1&optID=1
choose?modelID=1&catID=2&optID=5
price?

select?modelID=1
choose?modelID=1&catID=1&optID=2
choose?modelID=1&catID=2&optID=3
price?

select?modelID=1
choose?modelID=1&catID=1&optID=2
choose?modelID=1&catID=2&optID=4
price?

select?modelID=1
choose?modelID=1&catID=1&optID=2
choose?modelID=1&catID=2&optID=5
price?

select?modelID=2
choose?modelID=2&catID=1&optID=6
price?

select?modelID=2
choose?modelID=2&catID=1&optID=7
price?

select?modelID=2
choose?modelID=2&catID=1&optID=8
price?

The result would be nine SKUs with the options stored in an array.

result = array (
  sku, price, modelID, array ( catID => optID )
)

Many thanks!

Recursion

is most likely the way to go as the number of iterations is uncertain. I found this article here which is bigger candidate for a duplicate, but I still didn't get my solution and as my deadline is closing, will probably have to make the combinations manually...