PHP Array Search - key => string - php

I got some trouble with in_array()
$list = array(
"files/" => "/system/application/files/_index.php",
"misc/chat/" => "/system/application/misc/chat/_index.php"
);
I have this $_GET['f'] which holds the string files/.
How can I search through the array for possible matches?
If the string is found in the array, then the file should be included
Thanks for any help :)

It's really simple. All you need to do is check if the array element is set. The language construct that's usually used is isset() (yes, it's that obvious)...
if (isset($list[$_GET['f']])) {
}
There's no need to call a function for this, isset is cleaner and easier to read (IMHO)...
Note that isset is not actually a function. It's a language construct. That has a few implications:
You can't use isset on the return from a function (isset(foo()) won't work). It will only work on a variable (or a composition of variables such as array accessing or object accessing).
It doesn't have the overhead of a function call, so it's always fast. The overall overhead of a function call is a micro-optimization to worry about, but it's worth mentioning if you're in a tight loop, it can add up.
You can't call isset as a variable function. This won't work:
$func = 'isset';
$func($var);

array_key_exists is a function that returns true of the supplied key is in the array.
if(array_key_exists( $_GET['f'], $list )) {
echo $list[$_GET['f']];
}

You can use in_array() in conjunction with array_keys():
if (in_array($_GET['f'], array_keys($list))) {
// it's in the array
}
array_keys() returns an array of the keys from its input array. Using $list as input, it would produce:
array("files/", "misc/chat/");
Then you use in_array() to search the output from array_keys().

Use array_key_exists.
if(array_key_exists($_GET['f'], $list)){
// Do something with $list[$_GET['f']];
}

in_array() searches array for key using loose comparison unless strict is set.
it's like below.
foreach ($array as $value){
if ($key == $value){
return true;
}
}
My way.
function include_in_array($key, $array)
{
foreach($array as $value){
if ( strpos($value, $key) !== false ){
return false;
}
}
}

Related

return empty array in php

I have a function that returns an array, and is passed to foreach i.e.
foreach(function() as $val)
Since the array I am returning is declared in a series of if statements, I need to return an empty array if all the if statements are evaluated to false. Is this a correct way to do it?
if (isset($arr))
return $arr;
else
return array();
I would recommend declaring $arr = array(); at the very top of the function so you don't have to worry about it.
If you are doing the check immediately before you return, I do not recommend isset. The way you are using foreach is depending on an array being returned. If $arr is set to a number, for example, then it will still validate. You should also check is_array(). For example:
if (isset($arr) && is_array($arr))
return $arr;
else
return array();
Or in one line instead:
return (isset($arr) && is_array($arr)) ? $arr : array();
But, like I said, I recommending declaring the array at the very top instead. It's easier and you won't have to worry about it.
To avoid complexity, Simply
return [];

Array in a recursive function

I have this recursive function in which I must use an array for memory and verification of used data, meaning, after a string has been used i would like to remember that it has been used so i will not go over that string again in the next iteration.
The problem is after the first iteration the array is considered NULL.
So my question is this : How do i pass an array in a recursive function ? or how do i work with arrays in recursive function?
I looked this up here and though there are many similar questions none answer my one.
Note: I understand that anything that can be done with recursion can be done with a loop... yet... this is the function. And like i mentioned on the 2nd iteration the array is considered to be NULL and i get this warning:
array_push() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in...
Here is the logic of the function:
// Set Vars...
$Str = 'someData';
$S_Array = array();
// initial call...
GetData($Str, $S_Array);
function GetData ($string, $array)
{
// string manipulations code...
.
.
.
.
// Attempt to Store in array
array_push($array, $string);
foreach ($array as $val) {
// Recursive Call...
GetData($val, $array);
}
}
You are using array_push wrong -- the order of the arguments is switched. And there's really no need to use array_push at all, since the same result can be achieved with
$array[] = $string;

PHP: testing for existence of a cell in a multidimensional array

I have an array with numerous dimensions, and I want to test for the existence of a cell.
The below cascaded approach, will be for sure a safe way to do it:
if (array_key_exists($arr, 'dim1Key'))
if (array_key_exists($arr['dim1Key'], 'dim2Key'))
if (array_key_exists($arr['dim1Key']['dim2Key'], 'dim3Key'))
echo "cell exists";
But is there a simpler way?
I'll go into more details about this:
Can I perform this check in one single statement?
Do I have to use array_key_exist or can I use something like isset? When do I use each and why?
isset() is the cannonical method of testing, even for multidimensional arrays. Unless you need to know exactly which dimension is missing, then something like
isset($arr[1][2][3])
is perfectly acceptable, even if the [1] and [2] elements aren't there (3 can't exist unless 1 and 2 are there).
However, if you have
$arr['a'] = null;
then
isset($arr['a']); // false
array_key_exists('a', $arr); // true
comment followup:
Maybe this analogy will help. Think of a PHP variable (an actual variable, an array element, etc...) as a cardboard box:
isset() looks inside the box and figures out if the box's contents can be typecast to something that's "not null". It doesn't care if the box exists or not - it only cares about the box's contents. If the box doesn't exist, then it obviously can't contain anything.
array_key_exists() checks if the box itself exists or not. The contents of the box are irrelevant, it's checking for traces of cardboard.
I was having the same problem, except i needed it for some Drupal stuff. I also needed to check if objects contained items as well as arrays. Here's the code I made, its a recursive search that looks to see if objects contain the value as well as arrays. Thought someone might find it useful.
function recursiveIsset($variable, $checkArray, $i=0) {
$new_var = null;
if(is_array($variable) && array_key_exists($checkArray[$i], $variable))
$new_var = $variable[$checkArray[$i]];
else if(is_object($variable) && array_key_exists($checkArray[$i], $variable))
$new_var = $variable->$checkArray[$i];
if(!isset($new_var))
return false;
else if(count($checkArray) > $i + 1)
return recursiveIsset($new_var, $checkArray, $i+1);
else
return $new_var;
}
Use: For instance
recursiveIsset($variables, array('content', 'body', '#object', 'body', 'und'))
In my case in drupal this ment for me that the following variable existed
$variables['content']['body']['#object']->body['und']
due note that just because '#object' is called object does not mean that it is. My recursive search also would return true if this location existed
$variables->content->body['#object']->body['und']
For a fast one liner you can use has method from this array library:
Arr::has('dim1Key.dim2Key.dim3Key')
Big benefit is that you can use dot notation to specify array keys which makes things simpler and more elegant.
Also, this method will work as expected for null value because it internally uses array_key_exists.
If you want to check $arr['dim1Key']['dim2Key']['dim3Key'], to be safe you need to check if all arrays exist before dim3Key. Then you can use array_key_exists.
So yes, there is a simpler way using one single if statement like the following:
if (isset($arr['dim1Key']['dim2Key']) &&
array_key_exists('dim3Key', $arr['dim1Key']['dim2Key'])) ...
I prefer creating a helper function like the following:
function my_isset_multi( $arr,$keys ){
foreach( $keys as $key ){
if( !isset( $arr[$key] ) ){
return false;
}
$arr = $arr[$key];
}
return $arr;
}
Then in my code, I first check the array using the function above, and if it doesn't return false, it will return the array itself.
Imagine you have this kind of array:
$arr = array( 'sample-1' => 'value-1','sample-2' => 'value-2','sample-3' => 'value-3' );
You can write something like this:
$arr = my_isset_multi( $arr,array( 'sample-1','sample-2','sample-3' ) );
if( $arr ){
//You can use the variable $arr without problems
}
The function my_isset_multi will check for every level of the array, and if a key is not set, it will return false.

Any PHP function that will strip properties of an object that are null?

I am returning a json_encode() of an array of objects pulled from an ORM. It includes lots of properties with a null value. What is the neatest way to remove these properties that are null? I guess I could iterate over the properties, look if they are null and then unset() that property, but surely there must be a more elegant way?
Try this; it will only work on a simple object, but if it's coming from an ORM it should be simple enough.
// Strips any false-y values
$object = (object) array_filter((array) $object);
Thanks to Gordon's answer to another question yesterday for giving me the idea.
This works by
converting the object to an associative array, where object properties are the keys and their values are the array values
using array_filter with default arguments to remove array entries with a false (e.g. empty, or null) values
converting the new array back to a simple object
Note that this will remove all properties with empty values, including empty strings, false boolean values and 0s, not just nulls; you can change the array_filter call if you want to keep those and only remote those that are exactly null.
// Strips only null values
$object = (object) array_filter((array) $object, function ($val) {
return !is_null($val);
});
I'm going to add to the response given by El Yobo because that will only work if you have a 1 dimensional object or array. If there is any array or object nesting then in order to get the accepted solution to work you must create some sort of recursive array filter. Not good.
The best solution my colleague and I came up with was to actually perform a regular expression on the JSON string before it was returned from the server.
$json = json_encode($complexObject);
echo preg_replace('/,\s*"[^"]+":null|"[^"]+":null,?/', '', $json);
The regular expression will remove all places in the string of the form ,"key":null including any whitespace between the leading comma and the start of the key. It will also match "key":null, afterwards to make sure that no null values were found at the beginning of a JSON object.
This obviously isn't the most ideal situation but it will effectively remove null entries without having to develop some kind of recursive array filter.
Despite the name you can also use array_walk with a closure:
// Setup
$obj = (object) array('foo' => NULL, 'bar' => 'baz');
// equivalent to array_filter
array_walk($obj, function($v,$k) use ($obj) {
if(empty($v)) unset($obj->$k);
});
// output
print_r($obj);
Output
stdClass Object
(
[foo] => bar
)
There's no standard function to remove null-valued properties. Writing one of your own isn't inelegant, if you write one elegantly.
I made this function that solves my problem: clean null 'object properties' and 'array properties' inside an object. Also, you can have many 'levels' of objects/arrays inside of an object:
function cleanNullsOfObject(&$object) {
foreach ($object as $property => &$value) {
if (is_object($value)) {
cleanNullsOfObject($value);
if (empty(get_object_vars($value))) {
unset($object->$property);
}
}
if (is_array($value) && is_object($value[0])) {
foreach ($value as $val) {
cleanNullsOfObject($val);
}
}
if (is_null($value) || (is_array($value) && empty($value))) {
unset($object->$property);
}
}
}
//test
$object = new stdClass();
$object->property = "qwe";
$object->nullProperty = null;
$propertyObject = new stdClass();
$propertyObject->property = "asd";
$propertyObject->nullProperty = null;
$object->propertyObject = $propertyObject;
var_dump($object);
echo "<br>";
echo "<br>";
cleanNullsOfObject($object);
var_dump($object);
Building off of #Gordon 's answer, a couple of adjustments would be needed to make that work, but you can also use array_walk_recursive instead. The reference is required or otherwise any changes you make to the object won't apply to the scope outside of the Closure.
IE:
$someObject = (array)$someObject;
array_walk_recursive($someObject, function($v,$k) use (&$someObject) {
if($someObject[$k] == null) {
unset($someObject[$k]);
}
});
$someObject = (object)$someObject;
var_dump($someObject);

Check if an array contains a specific value?

I'd like to check if there is a value on an array like this:
function check_value_new ($list, $message) {
foreach ($list as $current) {
if ($current == $message) return true;
}
return false;
}
function check_value_old ($list, $message) {
for ($i = 0; $i < count ($status_list); $i ++) {
if ($status_list[$i] == $$message) return true;
}
return false;
}
$arr = array ("hello", "good bye", "ciao", "buenas dias", "bon jour");
check_value_old ($arr, "buenas dias"); // works but it isn't the best
check_value_new ($arr, "buenas dias"); // argument error, where I'm wrong?
I've read the check_value_new method is a better way to work with arrays, but I'm not used to work with it, how I should fix it?
PHP offers a function called in_array that checks if a value exists in a given array.
You can change your check_value_new function to include this:
function check_value_new ($list, $message) {
foreach ($list as $current) {
if (in_array($message, $current)) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
If you'd like to, you could also make the function work without the foreach loop, like so
function check_value_new ($list, $message) {
// returns true if found, else returns false.
return in_array($message, $list);
}
The reasons that your check_value_old() function breaks is because you have a typo in your loop's second parameter. $status_list is not one of the variables passed into your function and it is not declared anywhere before it is used. You merely need to use $list instead. It is also not necessary to call count() on every iteration -- since that value never changes in the loop, just call it once before the loop and use that value in the second parameter.
As for deciding how to loop over array values, there is no reason to reinvent a native function call. in_array() was already designed and optimized to search linear values in an array and return true as soon as it finds a match; otherwise it returns false.
I don't know what #AnthonyForloney is doing by writing in_array() inside of a foreach() loop. Not only will the snippet break because there aren't enough curly braces, the input array does not have two levels of data, so in_array() will choke when it receives $current which is a string (not the expected array).
Ultimately, my advice is: Only write your own custom function when there isn't a native function to suit your needs. Throw away both of the manual looping ideas and only call:
$arr = ["hello", "good bye", "ciao", "buenas dias", "bon jour"];
var_export(in_array("buenas dias", $arr));
One final insight that I'd like to provide is regarding microoptimization. If you are planning to check the existence of a unique value in a "very large" array, or if you are going to be making thousands of searches on the same array, then it would be more efficient to set up your array in a "flipped" orientation and call isset() or array_key_exists(). isset()/array_key_exists() will always outperform in_array() or array_search() because of the way that php handles arrays as "hash maps". More reading here.

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