PHP search in multidimensional array. without knowing key - php

Question

Array:
$userdb = array(
array(
'uid' => '100',
'name' => 'Sandra Shush',
'pic_square' => 'abc.jpg'
),
array(
'uid' => '5465',
'name' => 'Stefanie Mcmohn',
'pic_square' => 'Michael.jpg'
),
array(
'uid' => '40489',
'name' => 'Michael',
'pic_square' => 'xyz.jpg'
)
);
Search value:
Michael
Expected output:
$userdb = array(
array(
'uid' => '5465',
'name' => 'Stefanie Mcmohn',
'pic_square' => 'Michael.jpg'
),
array(
'uid' => '40489',
'name' => 'Michael',
'pic_square' => 'xyz.jpg'
)
);
As you can check what I want can anyone please tell me How can I achieve this result by using PHP. I don't care whether my search term is in 'uid', 'name', or 'pic_square' key but I want to get array whenever my search term result is matching. Is there any inbuilt function which can achieve this result?

Answer 1

Another way is to use array_filter() to remove elements that not match to your search.
$userdb = array(
array('uid' => '100', 'name' => 'Sandra Shush', 'pic_square' => 'abc.jpg'),
array('uid' => '5465', 'name' => 'Stefanie Mcmohn', 'pic_square' => 'Michael.jpg'),
array('uid' => '40489', 'name' => 'Michael', 'pic_square' => 'xyz.jpg')
);
$search = 'Michael';
$out = array_filter($userdb, function($item) use($search) {
return $item['name'] == $search || strpos($item['pic_square'], $search) !== false;
});
print_r($out);
Output:
Array (
[1] => Array (
[uid] => 5465
[name] => Stefanie Mcmohn
[pic_square] => Michael.jpg
)
[2] => Array (
[uid] => 40489
[name] => Michael
[pic_square] => xyz.jpg
)
)

Answer 2

Very simple solution is to apply simple foreach() with strpos()
1.iterate over the array using foreach()
2.Check that search value exist in any one of three id, name,pic_square or not? if yes then add that whole sub-array to a new array.
3.This new array is your desired result.
$search_value = 'Michael';
$final_array = [];
foreach($userdb as $userd){
if(strpos($userd['uid'],$search_value)!== false || strpos($userd['name'],$search_value)!== false || strpos($userd['pic_square'],$search_value)!== false){
$final_array[] = $userd;
}
}
print_r($final_array);
Output:- https://eval.in/997896

Answer 3

You can use preg_grep to match the search in a loose comparison.
$search = "Michael";
Foreach($userdb as $key => $arr){
If(preg_grep("/" . $search ."/", $arr)){
$res[] = $userdb[$key];
}
}
Var_dump($res);
I loop through the array and if a match is made with preg_grep it's added to the result array.
https://3v4l.org/BPJBC
Preg_grep will search the full array and not only items hardcoded.
This can be both a good and a bad thing obviously.
As an example if your DB expands with 'alias' key preg_grep will search that to without needing to change the code.
See here for an example:
https://3v4l.org/lOao3

Answer 4

This should do the trick.
foreach($userdb as $i=>$r){
foreach($r as $j=>$v){
#if($v matches the querystring)
#return $r / append $r to a match list
}
}
But NOTE THAT since there are no indexing and all, this will run in O(N^2) which is the worst case...
EDIT
After some research, came up with the following solution.
$userdb = array(
array(
'uid' => '100',
'name' => 'Sandra Shush',
'pic_square' => 'abc.jpg'
),
array(
'uid' => '5465',
'name' => 'Stefanie Mcmohn',
'pic_square' => 'Michael.jpg'
),
array(
'uid' => '40489',
'name' => 'Michael',
'pic_square' => 'xyz.jpg'
)
);
$search = "Michael";
$out = array_filter($userdb, function($item) use($search) {
foreach($item as $k=>$v){
if(preg_match("/$search/", $v) == 1){
return true;
}
}
});
echo json_encode($out);
The solution employs array_filter function (Syscall's answer is acknowledged hereby, that was the pointer for me to research on array_filter further) to reduce the array using a filter, where the filter being a preg_match executed on each attribute of the associative array elements. If a match found, it returns true, which will add the matching element into $out.