PHP: Search objects in an array - php

Question

Let's say I have an array of objects.
<?php
$people = array();
$people[] = new person('Walter Cook');
$people[] = new person('Amy Green');
$people[] = new person('Irene Smith');
How can I search an object in this array for a certain instance variable? For example, let's say I wanted to search for a person object with the name of "Walter Cook".
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

It depends of the person class construction, but if it has a field name that keeps given names, you can get this object with a loop like this:
for($i = 0; $i < count($people); $i++) {
if($people[$i]->name == $search_name) {
$person = $people[$i];
break;
}
}

Answer 2

Here is:
$requiredPerson = null;
for($i=0;$i<sizeof($people);$i++)
{
if($people[$i]->name == "Walter Cook")
{
$requiredPerson = $people[$i];
break;
}
}
if($requiredPerson == null)
{
//no person found with required property
}else{
//person found :)
}
?>

Answer 3

Assuming that name is a public property of the person class:
<?php
// build the array of objects
$people = array();
$people[] = new person('Walter Cook');
$people[] = new person('Amy Green');
$people[] = new person('Irene Smith');
// search name
$searchName = 'Walter Cook';
// ascertain the presence of the name in the array of objects
$isMatch = false;
foreach ($people as $person) {
if ($person->name === $searchName) {
$isMatch = true;
break;
}
}
// alternatively, if you want to return all matches into
// a new array of $results you can use array_filter
$result = array_filter($people, function($person) use ($searchName) {
return $person->name === $searchName;
});
hope this helps :)

Answer 4

well you could try this inside your class
//the search function
function search_array($array, $attr_name, $attr_value) {
foreach ($array as $element) {
if ($element -> $attr_name == $attr_value) {
return TRUE;
}
}
return FALSE;
}
//this function will test the output of the search_array function
function test_Search_array() {
$person1 = new stdClass();
$person1 -> name = 'John';
$person1 -> age = 21;
$person2 = new stdClass();
$person2 -> name = 'Smith';
$person2 -> age = 22;
$test = array($person1, $person2);
//upper/lower case should be the same
$result = $this -> search_array($test, 'name', 'John');
echo json_encode($result);
}