[Resolved] Searching arrays: what functions to use?

kilbey1

I have code where I convert a SQL statement into a temporary variable and then put it into an array. I want to use this array and have "SELECT", "FROM" and "WHERE" serve as 'delimiters' (ie. when the array finds "FROM", read until hits instance of "WHERE").

What stuff should I be looking at in PHP.net?

Thanks,
Eve

		$sql2 = "$sql";
		$chars = preg_split('/ /', $sql2, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
		print_r($chars);

	while ($word = mysql_fetch_array($chars)) {
		echo "Test";
	}

	//echo $sql2;		

	if (preg_match ("/\bplacement_candidate\b/i", "$sql2")) {
		//print "placement_candidate was found.<BR>";			
	} 
	if (preg_match ("/\bplacement_primarytech\b/i", "$sql2")) {
		//print "placement_primarytech was found.<BR>";
	}

AstroTeg

explode() might work - you'd have to call it a couple times. I'm not a huge fan of regular expressions for this task since queries tend to change and include odd ball characters which makes defining the expression a little trickier and an additional failure point.

Also (being nitpicky), this chunk of code is making PHP work a little harder: $sql2 = "$sql";

You don't need to wrap quotes around it. With quotes, you're asking PHP to parse the string and if it finds a variable to swap its value in place of the variable and return it as a string. Thats a lot of work. Instead, just do: $sql2 = $sql and this tells PHP to take the memory contents at $sql location and copy them the location used by $sql2.

kilbey1

AstroTeg, I think you must live here. 🙂

Thanks for the tip, I narrowed it down. Still using preg_split for the moment but I will read up on explode() now. Thanks again!

kilbey1

I haven't really used explode; am I using it anywhere near correctly in this case?

		$sql2 = $sql;
		$chars = preg_split('/ /', $sql2, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
		//print_r($chars);
		echo "<P>";
		$pieces = explode(", ", $chars);
		while ($delimiter=mysql_array_fetch($pieces)) {
			echo $delimiter['FROM'] . "<P>";
		}

It's just returning 'array' at the moment.

kilbey1

Solved. Those looking to really search arrays, check out the array_search() function.