Checking multiple variables with strpos PHP?

Question

I'm trying to make a simple search box that uses strposto check if the entered keyword makes a match with a variable. I have this working perfectly, however I can't seem to get it to work with multiple variables. Also I can't work out how to get it to output which variable has made the match.

I thought something along the lines of this would work for checking multiple variables but I was sadly mistaken:

$pos = strpos($mystring1, $mystring2, $findme);

If anyone can help here that would be great, this is the code I currently have working for one variable.

PHP

<?
if(isset($_POST["searchString"])) {
    $mystring1 = 'how are you today';
    $mystring2 = 'hello what is your name';

    $findme = $_POST["searchString"];
    $pos = strpos($mystring1, $findme);

    if ($pos !== false) {
         //found
    } else {
         //not found
    }
}
?>

HTML

<html>
    <body>
        <form action="test.php" method="post">
            <input type="text" name="searchString">
        </form>
    </body>
</html>

Can it be an array rather than variables? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6932438/search-for-partial-value-match-in-an-array — chris85, Sep 04 '17 at 14:01
the 3th parameter of strpos is an integer with an offset. http://php.net/manual/en/function.strpos.php — Mark Baijens, Sep 04 '17 at 14:14

Mark Baijens · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-05T06:52:36.820

0

You could do it like this.

<?
if(isset($_POST["searchString"])) {
    $mystring1 = 'how are you today';
    $mystring2 = 'hello what is your name';

    $findme = $_POST["searchString"];
    $pos = strpos($mystring1, $findme);
    $pos2 = strpos($mystring2, $findme);

    if ($pos !== false && $pos2 !== false) {
         //found in both strings
    } else if ($pos !== false || $pos2 !== false) {
         //found in 1 of the 2 strings
    } else {
         //not found
    }


    if ($pos !== false) {
         //found in string 1
    } 
    if ($pos2 !== false) {
         //found in string 2 
    } 
}
?>

edited Sep 05 '17 at 06:52

answered Sep 04 '17 at 14:16

Mark Baijens

13,028
11
47
73

This has worked very well, thanks you. Is there a way to make this work so it's not case sensitive? – Mike Toms Sep 04 '17 at 15:59
strtolower() on both variables that you are compating. mb_strtolower() on both variables that you are comparing if you use unicode. – Mark Baijens Sep 05 '17 at 06:48
Or just use `stripos()`, of course. – mickmackusa Apr 28 '23 at 06:57

Checking multiple variables with strpos PHP?

1 Answers1