PHP: How to use in_array with an array of regex strings?

Question

I have an array of paths that consist of regex strings:

  $paths = [
    '/cars$',
    '.*\/cars$',
    '^cars\/.*/',
    '/trucks$',
    '.*\/trucks$',
  ];

I want to check if my current path matches something in that array, eg:

if (in_array($current_path, $paths)) {
  //Do something
}

So for example, if my URL is some-site.com/cars or some-site.com/cars/honda then I want to return something in the if statement.

But I cannot figure out how to get this working with the regex.

I investigated using preg_grep() but that seems to only work with one set of regex rules at a time.

I can get this to work with preg_match and a string, eg:

$paths = '/cars$|.*\/cars$|^cars\/.*/|/trucks$|.*\/trucks$';

if (preg_match($paths, $current_path)) {
  //Do something
}

But I will eventually have many URLs added to this list so I would prefer to use an array.

Would anyone know if there is a function that achieves this?

foreach + break.

u_mulder
– u_mulder

2019-05-21 07:52:37 +00:00
Commented May 21, 2019 at 7:52 — u_mulder
– u_mulder, Commented May 21, 2019 at 7:52

bobble bubble · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-21 12:40:11Z

4

If you want to know, what patterns of an array match the string, how about using array_filter.

$res = array_filter($paths, function ($v) USE ($url) {
  return preg_match('~'.$v.'~', $url);
});

See PHP demo at 3v4l.org

echo count($res)." patterns matched:\n"; print_r($res);

2 patterns matched: Array ( [0] => /cars$ 1 => .*/cars$ )

Used ~ as pattern delimiter, so you wouldn't need to escape all those url slashes.

Be aware, that .*/cars$ looks redundant, if you already match for /cars$.

If you want to break on first match, use foreach which is probably more efficient (demo).

foreach($paths AS $v) {
  if (preg_match('~'.$v.'~', $url)) {
    echo $v.' matched'; break;
  }
}

You can further easily display the matched part of $url by using $out of preg_match.

edited May 21, 2019 at 12:40

answered May 21, 2019 at 8:52

bobble bubble

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2 Comments

MeltingDog Over a year ago

This is really weird - I have literally the same code as you (copy, pasted it) but it returns a count of 0 each time. I don't know why.

bobble bubble Over a year ago

@MeltingDog Maybe an old PHP Version? With >= 5.4 it should work.

MeltingDog · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-21 07:56:50Z

1

I figured I could use implode() to return it to a string, eg:

$paths = [
    '/cars$',
    '.*\/cars$',
    '^cars\/.*/',
    '/trucks$',
    '.*\/trucks$',
 ];

$paths_string = implode('|', $paths);

if (preg_match($paths_string, $current_path)) {
  //Do something
}

answered May 21, 2019 at 7:56

MeltingDog

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2 Comments

MeltingDog Over a year ago

That's really odd... it is working for me. Perhaps there's a different version of PHP. I though '|' was just 'OR'?

Nick Over a year ago

The problem is your regex is missing outer delimiters. You need something like $paths_string = '#' . implode('|', $paths) . '#'; e.g. 3v4l.org/0L6kq

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