how to filter JSON data rows - php

Question

I want to show data that include in specified categories. but the white page is my result
the function should search in json to display the rows that contain in specified categories.
for example: i need to display the users that contain cat 1 and cat 2 .
the result should list all name in rows that contain the specified category like this:
Steve
Stafin
Sara
if you needed any other question or problem in my describe, just tell me to let you know.
I appreciate your tips
users.json:
{"data":[
{
"id":1,
"category_name":"Writers",
"users":{
"data":[
{
"name":"Steve",
"id":"1",
"cat":"1",
"description":{
"data":[
{
"instagram":"steveid"
}
]
}
},{
"name":"Stafin",
"id":"2",
"cat":"2",
"description":{
"data":[
{
"instagram":"stafinid"
}
]
}
},{
"name":"Jack",
"id":"3",
"cat":"3",
"description":{
"data":[
{
"instagram":"jackid"
}
]
}
},{
"name":"Sara",
"id":"3",
"cat":"2",
"description":{
"data":[
{
"instagram":"saraid"
}
]
}
}
]
}
}
]}
php:
$str = file_get_contents('http://localhost/json/users.json');
$json = json_decode($str, true);
function searchArray($searchkey, $searchval, $array) {
foreach ($array as $key => $val) {
if ($val[$searchkey] === $searchval) {
return $val;
}
}
return null;
}
//i didn't know how to describe users for each time in 'do while'
$user = searchArray('id', '3', $json['data'][0]['users']['data']);
$cat = ["1", "3"];
if (in_array($user['cat'], $cat)) {
echo $user['description']['data'][0]['instagram'];
}
the users.json is the json data

Answer 1

This //i didn't know how to describe users for each time in 'do while' is the root of the problem, because you cannot know unless program crawls the array and finds all the id's before it even starts looking for the cats.
This snippet will give the answer to the specific problem in this question.
foreach ($json['data'][0]['users']['data'] as $row) {
if (in_array($row['cat'],[1,2])) {
echo $row['name'],"\n";
}
}
It is unclear what other "queries" the function will need to answer. I leave it to you to construct a function that will handle the necessary cases.