How to search in an array with preg_match?

Question

How do I search in an array with preg_match?

Example:

 name\         


        

Answer 1

$items = array();
foreach ($haystacks as $haystack) {
    if (preg_match($pattern, $haystack, $matches)
        $items[] = $matches[1];
}

Answer 2

You can use array_walk to apply your preg_match function to each element of the array.

http://us3.php.net/array_walk

Answer 3

Use preg_grep

$array = preg_grep(
    '/(my\n+string\n+)/i',
    array( 'file' , 'my string  => name', 'this')
);

Answer 4

In this post I'll provide you with three different methods of doing what you ask for. I actually recommend using the last snippet, since it's easiest to comprehend as well as being quite neat in code.

How do I see what elements in an array that matches my regular expression?

There is a function dedicated for just this purpose, preg_grep. It will take a regular expression as first parameter, and an array as the second.

See the below example:

$haystack = array (
  'say hello',
  'hello stackoverflow',
  'hello world',
  'foo bar bas'
);

$matches  = preg_grep ('/^hello (\w+)/i', $haystack);

print_r ($matches);

output

Array
(
    [1] => hello stackoverflow
    [2] => hello world
)

Documentation

• PHP: preg_grep - Manual

---

But I just want to get the value of the specified groups. How?

array_reduce with preg_match can solve this issue in clean manner; see the snippet below.

$haystack = array (
  'say hello',
  'hello stackoverflow',
  'hello world',
  'foo bar bas'
);

function _matcher ($m, $str) {
  if (preg_match ('/^hello (\w+)/i', $str, $matches))
    $m[] = $matches[1];

  return $m;
}

// N O T E :
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// you could specify '_matcher' as an anonymous function directly to
// array_reduce though that kind of decreases readability and is therefore
// not recommended, but it is possible.

$matches = array_reduce ($haystack, '_matcher', array ());

print_r ($matches);

output

Array
(
    [0] => stackoverflow
    [1] => world
)

Documentation

• PHP: array_reduce - Manual
• PHP: preg_match - Manual

---

Using array_reduce seems tedious, isn't there another way?

Yes, and this one is actually cleaner though it doesn't involve using any pre-existing array_* or preg_* function.

Wrap it in a function if you are going to use this method more than once.

$matches = array ();

foreach ($haystack as $str) 
  if (preg_match ('/^hello (\w+)/i', $str, $m))
    $matches[] = $m[1];

Documentation

• PHP: preg_match - Manual

Answer 5

$haystack = array (
   'say hello',
   'hello stackoverflow',
   'hello world',
   'foo bar bas'
);

$matches  = preg_grep('/hello/i', $haystack);

print_r($matches);

Output

Array
(
    [1] => say hello
    [2] => hello stackoverflow
    [3] => hello world
)