Array_search returns false when searching inside strings

Question

Here is the code

$description = explode("<li>", $rows['description']);
var_dump($description);
$find = 'annual';
$key = array_search($find, $description);
var_dump($key);
//echo $description[$key];

Here is the output:

array(9) { 
    [0]=> string(4) "   " 
    [1]=> string(185) "Fair. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee. Pay up to midnight ET online or by phone on your due date without a fee. Plus, paying late won't raise your APR.*" 
    [2]=> string(183) "Generous. 5% cash back at Home Improvement Stores & More on up to $1,500 in purchases from April through June 2014 when you sign up. And 1% cash back on all other purchases.*" 
    [3]=> string(64) "Human. 100% U.S.-based customer service available any time." 
    [4]=> string(188) "Looks out for you-since each Discover purchase is monitored. If it's unusual, you're alerted by e-mail, phone or text-and never responsible for unauthorized Discover card purchases.*" 
    [5]=> string(106) "Plus, free FICO® Credit Score on your monthly statement to help you stay on top of your credit.*" 
    [6]=> string(171) "0% Intro APR* on balance transfers for 18 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 10.99% - 22.99%. A fee of 3% applies for each balance transferred." 
    [7]=> string(112) "0% Intro APR* on purchases for 6 months. Then the variable purchase APR applies, currently 10.99% - 22.99%." 
    [8]=> string(119) "*Click "Apply" to see rates, rewards, and free FICO® Credit Score terms and other information.

" } 

bool(false)

Variable $find is searching for "annual" in the output you can see array key 1 has annual in it, but it's returning false.

So I don't know what I am missing or doing wrong. I've tried testing it with the whole value of array 1 to make sure it wasn't a problem searching inside the array, still got false. Also changed $find = "Generous" same result...False

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 19:48:52Z

3

You are misunderstanding the function of array_search(). The following line:

Fair. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee. Pay up to midnight ET online or by phone on your due date without a fee. Plus, paying late won't raise your APR.*

Contains the string annual, but it is not the string annual in its entirety. In other words array_string() does not search inside the strings, it attempts an exact match.

To find the result you are looking for I would trey something like the following:

$matches = array_filter($description, function($el) {
    // evaluate the current element
    // return true if a string index is 
    // found for the target string
    return strpos($el, 'annual') !== false;
});

var_dump($matches);

This iterates over the $description array and returns an array $filtered containing any elements that contain the string annual. Alternatively you could use a foreach loop and add each matching example to a $matches array.

Example here: https://eval.in/146145

Hope this helps.

edited Nov 17, 2023 at 19:48

CommunityBot

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answered May 4, 2014 at 4:04

Darragh Enright

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1 Comment

user3040286 Over a year ago

Darragh, if that is the case, why does this return false. $find = "Fair. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee. Pay up to midnight ET online or by phone on your due date without a fee. Plus, paying late won't raise your APR.*", because I figured since it wasn't working by searching inside, I would try the entire value, but that is still false as well. Regardless, I'm working in your solution now.

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