I have a multidimensional array that I am searching through for specific values. If those values are found I need to retain those elements in a new array.
array_intersect()
worked fine on PHP5.3, now on 5.4 it complains:
Notice: Array to string conversion.
I found that array_intersect()
has an issue with multidimensional arrays on PHP5.4. https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=60198
This is the $options
array I am searching through:
Array (
[index1] => html
[index2] => html
[index3] => slide
[index4] => tab
[index5] => Array ( [0] => 123 )
)
Code that works on PHP5.3.x:
$lookfor = array('slide', 'tab');
$found = array_intersect($options, $lookfor);
print_r($found);
Array
(
[index3] => slide
[index4] => tab
)
but in 5.4.x, this throws the error mentioned above.
What would be another way to do this without a loop and without using error suppression.
array_intersect()
isn't recursive. The function assumes the array is just one level deep and expects all the array elements to be scalars. When it finds a non-scalar value, i.e. a sub-array, it throws a Notice.
This is vaguely mentioned in the documentation for array_intersect()
:
Note: Two elements are considered equal if and only if: (string) $elem1 === (string) $elem2. In words: when the string representation is the same.
One solution I could think of is to use array_filter()
:
$lookfor = array('html', 'slide');
$found = array_filter($options, function($item) use ($lookfor) {
return in_array($item, $lookfor);
});
Note: This still performs a looping and isn't any better than a simple foreach
. In fact, it might be slower than a foreach
if the array is large. I have no idea why you're trying to avoid loops — I personally think it'd be more cleaner if you just use a loop.
Another solution I could think of is to remove the sub-arrays before using array_intersect()
:
<?php
$options = array(
'index1' => 'html',
'index2' => 'html',
'index3' => 'slide',
'index4' => 'tab',
'index5' => array(123),
);
$lookfor = array('html', 'slide');
$scalars = array_filter($options,function ($item) { return !is_array($item); });
$found = array_intersect ($scalars, $lookfor);
print_r($found);