compare string to sub key value in php array partial match

Question

I need to figure out a way to partial match a string to a sub key in my PHP array.

example:

string = howdy-doody show as you can see there is a - dash and a space between the words. In my PHP array the sub key might be howdy doody show with no dashes or it might be howdy doody-show with the dash between a different word in the string.

How can I find the sub key in the array with the string given?

sample array

$pages = array(

'Administrator' => array(
    'network-administrator' => array('title' => 'Network '.$li_1, 'description' => 'Network '.$li_1.' '.$temp_content, 'post' => '<p>Network '.$li_1.' '.$temp_content.'.</p>'),
    'database administrator' => array('title' => 'Database '.$li_1, 'description' => 'Database '.$li_1.' '.$temp_content, 'post' => '<p>Database '.$li_1.' '.$temp_content.'.</p>'),
),

'Analyst' => array(
    'business systems analyst' => array('title' => 'Business Systems '.$li_2, 'description' => 'Business Systems '.$li_2.' '.$temp_content, 'post' => '<p>Business Systems '.$li_2.' '.$temp_content.'.</p>'),
    'data-analyst' => array('title' => 'Data '.$li_2, 'description' => 'Data '.$li_2.' '.$temp_content, 'post' => '<p>Data '.$li_2.' '.$temp_content.'.</p>'),
),

);

sample string

network administrator

sample variable to locate the array value

$content = $pages['Administrator']['network administrator'];

with the above variable it won't find the sub key in the array because the sub key uses a - dash like this network-administrator.

So how would I get the array value including the original subkey and returns its contents using the string that has the space instead of dash like so, network administrator?

Much appreciated for help!

Replace all possible special characters with spaces in the strings you compare and the string you accept for comparison, but still print the returned values without anything replaced. — Ohgodwhy
– Ohgodwhy, Commented Sep 27, 2014 at 18:41
yes that is what I want to do. I already have the strings stripped of their special characters with all spaces between words. So how do I write the above variable to find the sub key in the array which does have special characters in it? — Mike
– Mike, Commented Sep 27, 2014 at 18:44
either use a regex with . in place of the spaces/funny characters, or strip the funny characters from the array keys. — i alarmed alien
– i alarmed alien, Commented Sep 27, 2014 at 18:47
I need to return the sub keys in the array exactly the way they are with the special characters, so removing them is not an option. — Mike
– Mike, Commented Sep 27, 2014 at 18:48
you can create a second array with stripped keys as the keys and the original keys as the values. — i alarmed alien
– i alarmed alien, Commented Sep 27, 2014 at 18:49

i alarmed alien · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-27 20:28:34Z

1

Here's one way to do it: remap your original keys to a new array containing stripped keys, and store the original key in the value for the array.

$t_keys = array();

foreach ($pages as $k => $arr2) {
    foreach (array_keys($arr2) as $a) {
        // perform whatever transformations you want on the key here
        $new_key = str_replace("-", " ", $a);
        // use the transformed string as the array key;
        // we still need to access the data in the original array, so store the outer
        // array key ("Administrator", "Analyst", etc.) and the inner array key
        // ("network-administrator", etc.) in a subarray.
        $t_keys[$new_key] = array( $k, $a );
    }
}

An example key-value pair from $t_keys:

$t_keys['network administrator'] = ['Administrator', 'network-administrator']

To access the value in the original array, we need to get $pages['Administrator']['network-administrator'], or, using the equivalent values from $t_keys: $pages[ $t_keys['network administrator'][0] ][ $t_keys['network administrator'][1] ].

To match against your search string:

$str = str_replace("-", " ", $original_search_string_from_url);

// check if it's in the transformed keys array
if (array_key_exists($str, $t_keys)) {
    // now we can access the data from our $pages array!
    $target = $pages[ $t_keys[$str][0] ][ $t_keys[$str][1] ];
    echo "the proper name for $str is " . $t_keys[$str][1] . "\n";
//  output: "the proper name for network administrator is network-administrator"

    // access various attributes of the network-administrator:
    echo "the title of $str is " . $target['title'];
}

If you don't need to know what the keys in $pages are (e.g. 'Administrator' and 'network-administrator') and just want to get straight to the relevant data, you could create references instead of storing the keys. Here's an example:

$refs = array();

foreach ($pages as $k => $arr2) {
    foreach (array_keys($arr2) as $a) {
        // perform whatever transformations you want on the key here
        $new_key = str_replace("-", " ", $a);
        // create a reference ( =& ) to the contents of $pages[$k][$a]
        // $refs[$new_key] points directly at $pages[$k][$a]
        $refs[$new_key] =& $pages[$k][$a];
    }
}

Now $refs['network administrator'] acts like a shortcut to $pages['Administrator']['network-administrator']; $refs['network administrator']['post'] accesses $pages['Administrator']['network-administrator']['post'], and so on.

edited Sep 27, 2014 at 20:28

answered Sep 27, 2014 at 19:03

i alarmed alien

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13 Comments

Mike Over a year ago

References look cool, uses less code and doesn't need the string checker part of the code from your first example, am I correct?

Mike Over a year ago

got a question for you. It works great btw. I am trying to access the stripped characters version of the value in the array from your foreach loop. I can't figure it out. I know how to get the proper one by using $t_keys[$str][1] but what do I use to access the stripped version of that same array key?

i alarmed alien Over a year ago

The stripped version will be $str. If you want to have the stripped version available, you could add it to the data in the nested array -- e.g. in the loop that sets up the lookup table $t_keys or $refs, you could do (in the $refs version): $refs[$new_key] =& $pages[$k][$a]; $pages[$k][$a]['stripped-key'] = $new_key;.

Mike Over a year ago

you mentioned this in your answer above If you don't need to know what the keys in $pages are. Can you clarify that? I'm not using the Reference version yet because I'm unsure about it. I still need access to the to the keys in pages.

i alarmed alien Over a year ago

Sometimes you just want to get the information that is held in the innermost array--in this case, title, post, etc.--and you don't care about keys of the outer arrays--in this case, if you don't need to know that the outer array key is Administrator and the inner key is network-administrator.

|

Adam Sinclair · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-27 19:58:30Z

Here is a function that use recursion and get you the array you passed to it but with new keys:

function getArr($arr, $reg, $char)
{
    foreach ($arr as $key => $value) {
        if (is_array($value))
            $newArray[preg_replace($reg, $char, $key)] = getArr($value, $reg, $char);
        else
            $newArray[preg_replace($reg, $char, $key)] = $value;
    }
    return $newArray;
}

Example:

You first need to get your new Array, in this case we would like to change in keys: '_' and '-' to space:

$newPages = getArr($pages, '/_|-/', ' ');

and then use our new array:

$content = $newPages['Administrator']['network administrator'];

Example in your case:

<?php
function getArr($arr, $reg, $char)
{
    foreach ($arr as $key => $value) {
        if (is_array($value))
            $newArray[preg_replace($reg, $char, $key)] = getArr($value, $reg, $char);
        else
            $newArray[preg_replace($reg, $char, $key)] = $value;
    }
    return $newArray;
}
$pages = array(

'Administrator' => array(
    'network-administrator' => array('title' => 'Network ', 'description' => 'Network', 'post' => '<p>Network</p>'),
    'database administrator' => array('title' => 'Database ', 'description' => 'Database', 'post' => '<p>Database</p>'),
),

'Analyst' => array(
    'business systems analyst' => array('title' => 'Business Systems ', 'description' => 'Business Systems', 'post' => '<p>Business Systems</p>'),
    'data-analyst' => array('title' => 'Data', 'description' => 'Data', 'post' => '<p>Data </p>'),
),

);

$content = getArr($pages, '/_|-/', ' ')['Administrator']['network administrator']['title'];
echo $content;

OUTPUT

Network

how do I write my variable $content = $pages['Administrator']['network administrator']; which uses your function?

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