Finding the value of an option with specific string - php

Question

Consider this snippet from select form:
<select name="cat_id"">
<option value="33">Apple</option>
<option value="44">Banana</option>
<option value="48">Carrot</option>
<option value="50">Dew</option>
<option value="77">Eggplant</option>
<option value="84">Fern</option>
<option value="92">Grass</option>
</select>
Is there a way, using SIMPLE DOM, I can extract the value="x" for specific string.
Example, I want to get the value of Dew, hence, I must be able to get 50
Tried searching and playing, but cannot find exact answer:
Parsing drop down menu with php simple dom <-- But values doesn't start from 0 nor increments uniformly
php , simple_html_dom.php, get selected option <-- I do not even have selected entry in the select form
I need to get the value for specific string so that I can use it to send form using cURL.
Hope, somebody can help. Thanks in advance and more power.

Answer 1

The following code will parse all option nodes and when the searched text is matched, it will display the corresponding value and ends:
$input = <<<_DATA_
<select name="cat_id">
<option value="33">Apple</option>
<option value="44">Banana</option>
<option value="48">Carrot</option>
<option value="50">Dew</option>
<option value="77">Eggplant</option>
<option value="84">Fern</option>
<option value="92">Grass</option>
</select>
_DATA_;
// Create a DOM object
$html = new simple_html_dom();
// Load HTML from a string
$html->load($input);
// searched text
$searchText = 'dew';
// Create a regex pattern (match $searchText followed OR preceded by any number of spaces/tabs/newLines ...)
// i flag stands for case insensitive match
$pattern = '/\s*'.$searchText.'\s*/i';
foreach( $html->find('select[name="cat_id"] option') as $option ){
echo $string = $option->plaintext;
// Check if the current node contains the searched text
if( preg_match($pattern, $string) ){
$value = $option->value;
echo ' => ' . $value;
// Exit the loop when done
break;
}
echo '<br>';
}
OUTPUT
Apple
Banana
Carrot
Dew => 50