comparing text

timus

Hi All

I'd like to compare text from a file with a value submitted from a form.

If i were using SQL I'd use

Select * from table where textfield like "%value%"

Is there an equivalent for doing this without the database? I'm hoping to use XML if that makes it any easier, and was planning on using the new simplexml items in PHP5

Any help would be very much appreciated

Thanks

Tim

thorpe

$string = 'bob';
if ($string == 'bob') {
  // text maches
}

laserlight

In this case you're checking if a given string is a substring of another string. You can use [man]strpos/man/[man]stripos/man for this, or regular expressions with [man]preg_match/man if you require such funtionality.

timus

So how would that work with

$string = '007'
if ($string == 'James Bond 007')
//does string match?

timus

Sorry you were a bit quick for me there,

Thanks I'll look into those!

Tim

timus

I've seen people mention that you can use the XPath function to do query XML files. Have I misinterpreted what I've read?

thorpe

$haystack = 'James Bond 007';
$needle = '007'; 
if (strpos($haystack,$needle) > 0) { 
  // needle found in haystack.
}

laserlight

Actually, it should be:

$haystack = 'James Bond 007';
$needle = '007'; 
if (strpos($haystack,$needle) !== false) { 
  // needle found in haystack.
}

thorpe

yeah... and thats not the first time ive been caught out. :-P

timus

Thanks for all the help

Weedpacket

timus wrote:
I've seen people mention that you can use the XPath function to do query XML files. Have I misinterpreted what I've read?

That's what it's for.

XML Path Language (XPath) Specification
XPath is a language for addressing parts of an XML document, designed to be used by both XSLT and XPointer.