Find if a value exist in a CSV file with PHP

Question

This is my code to check if a row of my .csv file contains a specific name, but it does not work.

I think it has something to do with the if statement.<

Answer 1

Since you haven't provided a sample of your file, am submitting the following as an alternative.

Do note that in your present code, you are assigning using a single equal sign = instead of comparing using == or ===, just saying as an FYI.

if ($line_of_text[0] = 'paul') should read as if ($line_of_text[0] == 'paul')

Assuming the following .csv format (will work even without the commas) and is case-sensitive, consult Footnotes regarding case-insensitive search.

Paul, Larry, Robert

---

Code:

<?php
$search      = "Paul";
$lines       = file('sources.csv');
$line_number = false;

while (list($key, $line) = each($lines) and !$line_number) {

   $line_number = (strpos($line, $search) !== FALSE);

}

if($line_number){

   echo "Results found for " .$search;

}

else{
   echo "No results found for $search";
}

---

Footnotes:

For a case-insensitive search, use stripos()

$line_number = (stripos($line, $search) !== FALSE);

---

Row number found on...

To give you the row's number where it was found:

$line_number = (strpos($line, $search) !== FALSE) ? $count : $line_number;

or (case-insensitive)

$line_number = (stripos($line, $search) !== FALSE) ? $count : $line_number;

then just echo $line_number;

Answer 2

Your problem is this line:

if ($line_of_text[0] = 'paul') {

This will always be true because you are assigning the value paul to $line_of_text[0] with the assign operator =. What you want to do is check if the two are equal, so you need to use the equality operator, ==. The line of code should be:

if ($line_of_text[0] == 'paul') {

There is also the === equality operator in PHP which checks for the same value AND same type. (This is a particularly nasty feature of PHP when compared to compiled languages)

e.g. consider: `$foo = 5; $bar = "5";

if ($foo === $bar)  // this will be false because foo is an int, and bar is a string

if ($foo == $bar) // this will be true

Don't be confused with the != comparison operator:

if ($foo != $bar) // foo is not equal to bar (note the single =)

Answer 3

Try using in_array instead of ==

if(in_array('paul', $line_of_text)) {
  // FOUND
}