[RESOLVED] Help with array and foreach (again!)

[sohost]

Hello again 🙂

I need some advice / assistance again please.

I am working with SOAP and i can successfully get the results to a query i run, so this is not related to SOAP but rather to the results returned and how to match specific results.

I have an array, that looks like this (just an example array based on the returned SOAP results):

Array
(
[49] => Carrier 1 - INBOUND (1-8666)
)

The above array is referenced by : $assignno1->didID = $dids1; (as seen below, in the code)

I want to match a specific string, like 1-8888 and then return the ID of the rows matched (found inside the []). You will notice that the above array contains 1-8666, which is not what I want to match. the problem I am having is that I am unable to perform the search and match, so I am actually matching the 1-8666 number, even though I do not want to.

In other words, I DON'T WANT TO MATCH the above, but I seem to be matching it and that is not what I want. Clearly something is wrong with my preg_match and the results returned.

If I do not match, I do not want anything returned. Only if I match, do I want it to return results.

Here is some example code for the above, that is not working.

$numbertomatch = 2; //The amount of numbers I want to match and then assign

$ext_id = new stdClass();
$ext_id->userID = $result->ID;
$public_no1 = $client->GetPublicNoPoll($ext_id);

$dids1 = array();
if (!is_soap_fault($public_no1)) {
	if (isset($public_no1->publicNo->available)) {
		if (is_object($public_no1->publicNo->available)) {

	$_dids1 = new stdClass();
	$_dids1 = $public_no1->publicNo->available;
	$dids1[$_dids1->ID] = $_dids1->channel.' ('.$_dids1->externalNo.')';
	$i = (int)1;
	foreach ($public_no1->publicNo->available as $key => $val)
		if (preg_match("/^1-8888/", $val->externalNo)) {
			$dids1[] = $val->ID;
			if ($i == (int)$numbertomatch)
				{
				break;
				}
				else 
				{
				$i++;
				}
			}

		}
	}
}
$assignno1 = new stdClass();
$assignno1->didID = array();
$assignno1->didID = $dids1;
$assignno1->userID = $result->ID;
$assignnoresult1 = $client->AssignPublicNo($assignno1);
$didNumberCount = count($assignno1->didID);

I suspect that my problems are the foreach and the preg_match, so if someone is good with this sort of thing, please can you give me a hand.

I can successfully get a list of numbers and i can also successfully assign numbers. Both are done by SOAP.

My problem is the matching and returning the matched results.

Thanks in advance.

[bradgrafelman]

What is it you're trying to match? This:

preg_match("/^1-8888/", $val->externalNo)

is looking for "1-8888" at the beginning of a string.

[sohost]

Yes, that is correct. I want to match 1-8888 for any $val->externalNo

You will see that this:

    $dids1[$_dids1->ID] = $_dids1->channel.' ('.$_dids1->externalNo.')'; 

Is what results in:

    [49] => Carrier 1 - INBOUND (1-8666)

So, each number in brackets (like the 1-8666) is this : ('.$_dids1->externalNo.')

I basically need to match that with the preg_match, and also find as many as is defined in $numbertomatch.

So, for example, say I want to match 2 x 1-8888 numbers, I need to get the ID's of those numbers matched. In the above, there are no 1-8888 numbers returned, so I should not get any results returned, but I am.

[laserlight]

sohost wrote:

Yes, that is correct. I want to match 1-8888 for any $val->externalNo

As bradgrafelman noted, at the moment, you are matching for 1-8888 at the start.

It sounds like you can just use [man]strpos/man to search for '(1-8888)'.

[sohost]

I do need to match the START, because the numbers are actually longer.

Say, for example, i get this:

Array
(
[49] => Carrier 1 - INBOUND (1-8666123123)
)

And i want to match x amount of numbers that START with 1-88888

I should not get any match.

So, i do need to match the START because I have to try match certain TYPES of numbers and not specific numbers.

I basically want to try and match however many numbers i need to (based on $numbertomatch) and they ned to be of a specific type, which is why i need to match the START.

[laserlight]

In that case, it sounds like you should use a pattern like:

/\b1-88888\d*/

though it is not clear to me whether you want to match starting from a '(', or a more general word boundary, or if that is not a concern at all.

I suggest that you state more precisely what is the format of what you are trying to match.

[sohost]

I want to match the START of : $_dids1->externalNo

So, for example, i could get an array of numbers like this:

Array
(
[49] => Carrier 1 - INBOUND (1-8666123123)
[50] => Carrier 1 - INBOUND (1-8666124124)
[51] => Carrier 1 - INBOUND (1-8666125125)
[52] => Carrier 1 - INBOUND (1-8666126126)
)

I want to match x amount of numbers that start with 1-888

I know that in the above example, I should NOT match anything, and that is what I want to try and achieve.

If I wanted to match 2 numbers that started with 1-866, i should match the first two results from above.

Does that make sense?

I basically get a list of numbers returned in an array and i want to match some numbers by their START. If i find matches, they must be returned. If no matches are found, nothing should be returned.

The actual matching must be done against : $_dids1->externalNo (for each array results returned)

[sohost]

I only want to match against the START of the number in the brackets, for each array result.

[laserlight]

Ah, then a pattern like this should work:

/\(1-88888\d*\)/

[sohost]

Ok, i will try that. The other issue i am having is whether my CODE itself will work, and not just the preg_match string.

Can someone please check the 'flow' of things like the foreach and the preg_match and tell me if it looks correct.

I will try your suggestion, laserlight, and i thank you for your suggestion. If possible, can you perhaps explain that regular expression to me? I am learning regular expressions, but if you can try and break that down for me it will help me learn.

Thank you again and if someone can check my code, to see if it makes sense, i would appreciate it.

[laserlight]

sohost wrote:

I will try your suggestion, laserlight, and i thank you for your suggestion. If possible, can you perhaps explain that regular expression to me? I am learning regular expressions, but if you can try and break that down for me it will help me learn.

Well, ( matches a literal opening parenthesis. The next part is obviously the start of the number that you want to match against, followed by \d* to match the rest of the number, if any. Then ) just verifies that the closing parenthesis was reached, thus checking to reduce the chance that you are dealing with malformed data.

[sohost]

Thank you so much.

I have been using this website to teach myself regular expressions : http://www.regular-expressions.info/

They are very powerful, but can becoming confusing, especially to someone new to regular expressions (like me)

Thank you again very much.

I will keep trying to get this working and thank you all for your help so far.

I am just still concerned that the actual code is not working, so anyone that can spend a few moments looking it over will really help me out.

[sohost]

Okay, after much testing i figure that this is a regular expression matching issue.

My code works fine whenever i have numbers that do not contain any dashes.

For example, i can match numbers and assign numbers just fine if they are like 1888 or 1866. It works perfectly and does what i want.

However, the minute i have a dash in the number, like 1-888 or 1-866, it will no longer match.

I will try figure it out, but if anyone is a regular expression guru that can help, i would appreciate it.

Basically, i need regex to match numbers of any kind and any length, whether they have a dash after the first digit or not.

Numbers like:

1-8xxxxxxxx
18xxxxxxxx
1-0xxxxxxxx
10xxxxxxxx

etc..

or any other numbers that dont contain dashes, like:

234xxxxxxx
345xxxxxxx
456xxxxxxx

If (or when) i find a solution i'll post it for comments.

Much appreciated.

[sohost]

also numbers that start with a 0

like: 08xxxxxxxx

[Weedpacket]

sohost wrote:

I only want to match against the START of the number in the brackets, for each array result.

Just for clarification: the "^" won't match the start of the number, it will match the start of the entire string. Since in these cases the strings all start with "Carrier", none of them start with "1-8888".

Oh, and (Edit[noparse]🙂[/noparse] you can make individual characters (like -) by following it with a ?. I.e., -? says "match a hyphen here, but if there isn't one then that's okay too).

[sohost]

None of them start with brackets.

I ADD the brackets myself, here :

    $dids1[$_dids1->ID] = $_dids1->channel.' ('.$_dids1->externalNo.')';

Which results in:

    [49] => Carrier 1 - INBOUND (1-8666)

I can just as easily remove the brackets like this:

    $dids1[$_dids1->ID] = $_dids1->externalNo;

Which will result in this:

    [49] => 1-8666

Bottom line is that I need to match the START of these numbers, whether they contain a hyphen or not, and I need a regular expression for this.

Apologies if I am making this over complicated and if my weak coding is not helping to clarify.

[Weedpacket]

So ... what exactly is in $val->externalNo, since that is what you're trying to match?
var_dump($val->externalNo)

[sohost]

var_dump gives me something like this:

string(49) "1-8666123123"

Here is something else i have found....

If i have a single result in the array, the foreach doesn't seem to work.

If i have more than one result in the array, then it does actually seem to work.

Does foreach not work if there is a single result or am i missing something?

I think i am more confused now than i was before.... and i now have a rash on my hands! Never knew PHP could physically affect me this way 🙂

[sohost]

Okay, after getting some sleep and thinking about this a bit more, i think the issue i am seeing is related to only having a single recrod in the array.

When i have more than 1 result in the array, everything works and i get my results correctly.

However, when i have a single result / record in the array, it seems like the foreach does not get used.

Does that make sense?

I think my problem is somewhere here:

	$dids = array();
		if (!is_soap_fault($public_no)) {
			if (isset($public_no->publicNo->available)) {
				if (is_object($public_no->publicNo->available)) {
					$_dids = new stdClass();
					$_dids = $public_no->publicNo->available;
					$dids[$_dids->ID] = $_dids->externalNo;
				} else {
				 $i = (int)1;
					foreach ($public_no->publicNo->available as $key => $val)
						if (preg_match("/^1-8999/", $val->externalNo)) {
						$dids[] = $val->ID;
						if ($i == (int)1)
						{
						break;
						}
						else
						{
							$i++;
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}

If the $dids array contains only 1 result / record, then the foreach does not work and i just get the original $dids array.

If i have more than one result, things do work and i get the $dids array, as modified by the foreach.

Can someone give me a hand with this?

[Weedpacket]

Well, your code is very confusing; having both $_dids1 and $dids1 as variables doesn't help.
Is there a particular reason why you're using stdClass() to create objects? The PHP idiom would be to use an associative array (if you do need it as an object of no particular type at some point, then a simple [font=monospace]$obj = (object)$array;[/font] would do the job).

Also, in the places where you have something like

        $_dids1 = new stdClass();
        $_dids1 = $public_no1->publicNo->available;

The first line does nothing (except create a new object which is immediately destroyed).

The really hairy bit though, is that you have

$dids1[$_dids1->ID] =  = $_dids1->channel.' ('.$_dids1->externalNo.')'; 

just before the loop, and inside the (rather more complicated than necessary) loop there's

$dids1[] = $val->ID; 

Which just doesn't look right to me.