How to access an array element whose key starts with some unique string in PHP?

Question

From the following array:

area = Array
    (
        sur12 => 2
        abb12 => 5
        sur13 => 6
        abb13 => 4
        sur14 => 8
        abb14 => 4
        sur15 => 2
        abb15 => 5
        abb16 => 8
        abb17 => 5
        abb18 => 4
        abb19 => 2
        abb20 => 6
        abb21 => 9
        abb22 => 5
        abb23 => 9
        abb24 => 8
        sur_count15 => 4
        abb_count24 => 2
    )

how do I access area['sur_count15'] if I only know the prefix sur_count, or area['abb_count24'] if I only know the prefix abb_count?

Is there any way to do this in PHP, like, e.g. in CSS where I can access an ID that starts with abc_count by using [id*="abc_count"]?

The prefix is unique to the first 3 characters.

Have you considered using `array_keys($area)`? See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2471120/php-function-array-key-exists-and-regular-expressions — azhrei, Jul 18 '12 at 06:18

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

1

I ended up using the answer to my other question over at How to get a subset of $_POST array with keys starting with a prefix. If only I could restructure the array, but that's a no-go for now. Thanks, y'all.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Community

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answered Jul 18 '12 at 06:23

Ana Ban

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 18 '12 at 06:05

one of the solution to your above problem could be as below but i strongly advise you to look for another solution because this one may not be very optimizable solution :

for(int $i=0;$i<30;$i++)
{
  if(in_array('sur_count' . $i,$area))
  {
    //your code here
  }
  if(in_array('abb_count' . $i,$area))
  {
    //your code here
  }
}

may be this could help you a bit.....

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

0

Try getting the array_keys, then searching this for a match using regexp /sur_count[0-9]*/ or similar.

See here for more details: php function array_key_exists and regular expressions

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

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answered Jul 18 '12 at 06:20

azhrei

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How to access an array element whose key starts with some unique string in PHP?

3 Answers3