Accessing Multidimensional Array Values without recursive functions and/or loops

modifications after I got better understanding of the question I think you can do it with eval:

<?php

function getArrValuesFromString($string, $arr) {
  $stringArr = '$arr[\'' . str_replace('-', "']['", $string) . '\']';

  eval("\$t = " . $stringArr . ";");
  return $t;
}

$arr[5][1]['key2'][3] = '1here it is - 5-1-key2-3 key address';
$string = '5-1-key2-3';
echo getArrValuesFromString($string, $arr); //1here it is - 5-1-key2-3 key address

EDIT :

Here is a way I deprecate so much, because of security, but if you are sure of what you are doing :

$key = 'a-b-c-d';
$array = <<your array>>;
$keys = explode('-', $key);
// we can surely do something better like checking for each one if its a string or int then adding or not the `'`
$final_key = "['".implode("']['", $keys)."']";
$result = eval("return \$array{$final_key};");

There is a class I wrote inspired from something I read on the web don't really remember where but anyway, this can helps you :

/**
 * Class MultidimensionalHelper
 *
 * Some help about multidimensional arrays
 * like dynamic array_key_exists, set, and get functions
 *
 * @package Core\Utils\Arrays
 */
class MultidimensionalHelper
{
    protected $keySeparator = '.';

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function keySeparator()
    {
        return $this->keySeparator;
    }

    /**
     * @param string $keySeparator
     */
    public function setKeySeparator($keySeparator)
    {
        $this->keySeparator = $keySeparator;
    }



    /**
     * Multidimensional array dynamic array_key_exists
     *
     * @param $key      String Needle
     * @param $array    Array  Haystack
     * @return bool     True if found, false either
     */
    public function exists($key, $array)
    {
        $keys = explode($this->keySeparator(), $key);

        $tmp = $array;

        foreach($keys as $k)
        {
            if(!array_key_exists($k, $tmp))
            {
                return false;
            }

            $tmp = $tmp[$k];
        }

        return true;
    }

    /**
     * Multidimensional array dynamic getter
     *
     *
     * @param $key      String  Needle
     * @param $array    Array   Haystack
     * @return mixed    Null if key not exists or the content of the key
     */
    public function get($key, $array)
    {
        $keys = explode($this->keySeparator(), $key);
        $lkey = array_pop($keys);

        $tmp = $array;

        foreach($keys as $k)
        {
            if(!isset($tmp[$k]))
            {
                return null;
            }

            $tmp = $tmp[$k];
        }

        return $tmp[$lkey];
    }

    /**
     * Multidimensional array dynamic setter
     *
     * @param String    $key
     * @param Mixed     $value
     * @param Array     $array  Array to modify
     * @param Bool      $return
     * @return Array    If $return is set to TRUE (bool), this function
     *                  returns the modified array instead of directly modifying it.
     */
    public function set($key, $value, &$array)
    {
        $keys = explode($this->keySeparator(), $key);
        $lkey = array_pop($keys);

        $tmp = &$array;

        foreach($keys as $k)
        {
            if(!isset($tmp[$k]) || !is_array($tmp[$k]))
            {
                $tmp[$k] = array();
            }

            $tmp = &$tmp[$k];
        }

        $tmp[$lkey] = $value;

        unset($tmp);
    }
}

Then use :

$MDH = new MultidimensionalHelper();

$MDH->setKeySeparator('-');

$arr = [ 
    'a' => [
        'b' => [
            'c' => 'good value',
        ],
        'c' => 'wrong value',
    ],
    'b' => [
        'c' => 'wrong value',
    ]
];

$key = 'a-b-c';
$val = $MDH->get($key, $arr);

var_dump($val);

Here is the content of the get function if you don't find it in Class code :

public function get($key, $array)
{
    $keys = explode($this->keySeparator(), $key);
    $lkey = array_pop($keys);

    $tmp = $array;

    foreach($keys as $k)
    {
        if(!isset($tmp[$k]))
        {
            return null;
        }

        $tmp = $tmp[$k];
    }

    return $tmp[$lkey];
}