PHP best way to search a string for values in an array?

Question

Hello,,

I have a string and an array, the array contains all kinds of parts of a string I want to find in the original string (this is for basically reading a error log and identifying what line there is a "Could not find", or "Error", etc.)

Is the foreach preg_match the best method?

Answer 1

The easiest and speediest way is using strpos(). If it returns FALSE it didn't find the substring, otherwise it did. Make sure you use === as it might return 0:

$found_substring = (strpos($text, $substring) !== FALSE);

For case-insensitivity, use stripos(). If you need more matching power, use preg_match().

Answer 2

You can output each matching line with grep.

<?php
$log = '~/logs/error_log';
$errors = array(
    'Could not find',
    'Error',
    'etc.'
);
$results = array();
foreach ($errors as $error){
    $results[$error] = shell_exec("grep '$error' $log");
}
var_dump($results);
?>

Adjust the log location for your particular setup and that should work.