Searching in a multi-dimensional array (PHP) - php

Question

I'm having a problem lately that's driving me crazy. I have a multi-dimensional array like this:
$a = array(
'db' => array(
'0' => array(
'id' => '1',
'name' => 'test',
'cat' => array(
'a' => '15',
'b' => '20',
'c' => '30'
),
'canvas' => '2'
),
'1' => array(
'id' => '2',
'name' => 'test2',
'cat' => array(
'a' => '15',
'b' => '20',
'c' => '30'
),
'canvas' => '2'
)
'2' => array(
'id' => '3',
'name' => 'test',
'cat' => array(
'a' => '50',
'b' => '40',
'c' => '90'
),
'canvas' => '1'
)
)
);
And i want to search on it using a function like this: search('canvas = 1');
That would return all the arrays, child of db, that have a key canvas with the value of 1. Or, for example:
search('a = 15');
Would return all arrays that have a key, child of cat, named a and with a value of 15.

Answer 1

$a = array(
'db' => array(
'0' => array(
'id' => '1',
'name' => 'test',
'cat' => array(
'a' => '15',
'b' => '20',
'c' => '30'
),
'canvas' => '2'
),
'1' => array(
'id' => '2',
'name' => 'test2',
'cat' => array(
'a' => '15',
'b' => '20',
'c' => '30'
),
'canvas' => '2'
),
)
);
//checks if array $array contains element with $searchKey key, and $searchVal value
function arrayContains($array, $searchVal, $searchKey) {
if (!is_array($array))
return false;
foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
if ($key === $searchKey && $searchVal === $value)
return true;
if (is_array($value) && arrayContains($value, $searchVal, $searchKey))
return true;
}
return false;
}
function search($a, $search) {
list($searchKey, $searchVal) = explode('=', $search);
$result = array();
foreach($a as $val) {
if (arrayContains($val, $searchVal, $searchKey))
$result[] = $val;
}
return $result;
}
print_r(search($a['db'], "a=15"));
print_r(search($a['db'], "canvas=1"));
Which produces this output(outputs sub-arrays of $a['db'] which contain searched key=>value pair):
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => test
[cat] => Array
(
[a] => 15
[b] => 20
[c] => 30
)
[canvas] => 2
)
[1] => Array
(
[id] => 2
[name] => test2
[cat] => Array
(
[a] => 15
[b] => 20
[c] => 30
)
[canvas] => 2
)
)
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[name] => test
[cat] => Array
(
[a] => 50
[b] => 40
[c] => 90
)
[canvas] => 1
)
)

Answer 2

Just check the below link if this can help you -
http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-search.php
It contains detailed documentation of php function array_search() and various user codes for searching in multi-dimensional array along with user reviews.

Answer 3

function search($array, $canvas)
{
$result = array();
foreach ($array as $k1 => $v1) {
foreach ($v1 as $k2 => $v2) {
if ($v2['canvas'] == $canvas) {
$result[] = $array[$k1][$k2];
}
}
}
return $result;
}
// $a = your array
print_r(search($a, 1));