Is there a shortcut to writing multiple conditions in php?

Question

Is there a shorter way of writing this (without using regex or string-matching functions)?

if($page=='page1.php' || $page=='page2.php' || $page=='page3.php' || $page=='page4.php'){ do something...}

I'm looking for something like:

if($page==('page1.php', 'page2.php', 'page3.php', 'page4.php')){do something...}

but I know that isn't correct. Any suggestions?

I'm assuming that the values aren't actually page1.php,page2.php etc and they are placeholders? Or is this actually what your code will be checking for? — MDEV, Jan 18 '12 at 22:26
possible duplicate of [Compare multiple values in PHP](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4106382/compare-multiple-values-in-php) — mario, Jan 18 '12 at 22:26
yep...pretty close to a duplicate...I looked for 5 min and couldn't find a question similar to mine...so I posted it. — codescribblr, Jan 18 '12 at 22:28
in any case, I think that as with the other one, in_array may well be the best solution — MDEV, Jan 18 '12 at 22:30
See the newest answer to the question Mario links to, on using [associative array keys](http://stackoverflow.com/a/4106654/90527). `in_array` must search through the array looking for a match (`O(n)` time complexity), while looking up a string as a key rather than a value takes a constant time to lookup (`O(1)` time complexity). — outis, Jan 19 '12 at 10:43

dkamins · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-19T03:13:14.893

14

Try in_array:

if (in_array($page, array('page1.php', 'page2.php', 'page3.php'))) { ... }

http://php.net/manual/en/function.in-array.php

edited Jan 19 '12 at 03:13

answered Jan 18 '12 at 22:24

dkamins

21,450
7
55
59

1

Maybe I left out the last parens as an exercise for the reader. – dkamins Jan 19 '12 at 03:13
well in that case, perfecto! ;) – codescribblr Jan 19 '12 at 15:49
I just wanted to add a note for posterity. PHP version 5.4+ has a new array syntax so this can be made even (slightly) shorter. Like this: `if (in_array($page, ['page1.php', 'page2.php', 'page3.php'])) { ... }` – Cave Johnson Jun 14 '16 at 23:03

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 18 '12 at 22:24

3

Use switch, more readable than a complex if condition

switch ($page){
  case 'page1.php':
  case 'page2.php':
  case 'page3.php':
  case 'page4.php':
    // do something
    break;

  default:
    //else
}

answered Jan 18 '12 at 22:24

dorsh

23,750
2
27
29

better...but still a little verbose. I'd like to try not to repeat any command more than once. – codescribblr Jan 18 '12 at 22:26
I think any other option would be less efficient than an if or switch statement. – dorsh Jan 18 '12 at 22:29

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 18 '12 at 22:37

1

To have an answer that is not same old same old:

if (preg_match('"^page[1-4]\.php$"', $page)) {

Now this makes sense for your synthetic example, and if you really have ranges of something to test against, or some other structure to go by. Mostly it just happens to be compacter then.

answered Jan 18 '12 at 22:37

mario

144,265
20
237
291

1

Please don't bug me with microoptimization conjectures if you haven't profiled even the hypothetical example. – mario Jan 18 '12 at 22:38

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 18 '12 at 22:26

0

I think one possible solutions is writing function that as arguments takes page1.php, page2.php etc. and return true if statement is correct.

answered Jan 18 '12 at 22:26

Mikołaj Stolarski

183
6

Silvertiger · Answer 5 · 2012-01-18T22:48:45.860

0

UPDATE

Sorry for the brain dead answer .. missed the first line. as stated above you could build an array of pages and user in_array()

$pagelist = array('page1.php','page2.php','page3.php','page4.php','page5.php')
if (in_array($page,$pagelist)) {
    //do something
}

it's a bit more elegant and definately cleans up the if statement, but doesn't do much to reduce the code. the only benefit i can think is that you could build the $pagelist array from an external source and using it might be more efficient?

edited Jan 18 '12 at 22:48

answered Jan 18 '12 at 22:27

Silvertiger

1,680
2
19
32

2

you do realise he already has that exact code at the top of his post - thats what he's trying to avoid! – MDEV Jan 18 '12 at 22:29
1

how is this any different from my question? – codescribblr Jan 18 '12 at 22:29

Is there a shortcut to writing multiple conditions in php?

5 Answers5