How to search by key=>value in a multidimensional array in PHP
How about the SPL version instead? It'll save you some typing:
// I changed your input example to make it harder and
// to show it works at lower depths:
$arr = array(0 => array('id'=>1,'name'=>"cat 1"),
1 => array(array('id'=>3,'name'=>"cat 1")),
2 => array('id'=>2,'name'=>"cat 2")
);
//here's the code:
$arrIt = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveArrayIterator($arr));
foreach ($arrIt as $sub) {
$subArray = $arrIt->getSubIterator();
if ($subArray['name'] === 'cat 1') {
$outputArray[] = iterator_to_array($subArray);
}
}
What's great is that basically the same code will iterate through a directory for you, by using a RecursiveDirectoryIterator instead of a RecursiveArrayIterator. SPL is the roxor.
The only bummer about SPL is that it's badly documented on the web. But several PHP books go into some useful detail, particularly Pro PHP; and you can probably google for more info, too.
Code:
function search($array, $key, $value)
{
$results = array();
if (is_array($array)) {
if (isset($array[$key]) && $array[$key] == $value) {
$results[] = $array;
}
foreach ($array as $subarray) {
$results = array_merge($results, search($subarray, $key, $value));
}
}
return $results;
}
$arr = array(0 => array(id=>1,name=>"cat 1"),
1 => array(id=>2,name=>"cat 2"),
2 => array(id=>3,name=>"cat 1"));
print_r(search($arr, 'name', 'cat 1'));
Output:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[id] => 1
[name] => cat 1
)
[1] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[name] => cat 1
)
)
If efficiency is important you could write it so all the recursive calls store their results in the same temporary $results
array rather than merging arrays together, like so:
function search($array, $key, $value)
{
$results = array();
search_r($array, $key, $value, $results);
return $results;
}
function search_r($array, $key, $value, &$results)
{
if (!is_array($array)) {
return;
}
if (isset($array[$key]) && $array[$key] == $value) {
$results[] = $array;
}
foreach ($array as $subarray) {
search_r($subarray, $key, $value, $results);
}
}
The key there is that search_r
takes its fourth parameter by reference rather than by value; the ampersand &
is crucial.
FYI: If you have an older version of PHP then you have to specify the pass-by-reference part in the call to search_r
rather than in its declaration. That is, the last line becomes search_r($subarray, $key, $value, &$results)
.