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Request #51335 Search first substring from list
Submitted: 2010-03-20 11:45 UTC Modified: 2020-02-13 17:18 UTC
From: vovan-ve at yandex dot ru Assigned:
Status: Suspended Package: Strings related
PHP Version: Irrelevant OS:
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2010-03-20 11:45 UTC] vovan-ve at yandex dot ru 
Description:
------------
If we want to search first substrings from list, we should make multiple calls to strpos() for each substring. Using PCRE will slowdown performance. So, we need some new function like:

  int strpos_array(string $haystack, array $needles, string &$found [, int $offset = 0 ])

which will accept array of substrings in $needle, search first position of them. If nothing found then returns FALSE. If found any substring then assign it to $found and return its position.

The function name is not important. Other functions for case-insensitive search and/or for reverse search (stripos_array, strrpos_array, strripos_array) also useful.

Extending function strpos() to accept array in $needle is not good due to &$found parameter.

Good example of using such function is writing parser of some data like SQL dump. Performance of the function should be higher then PCRE.

Test script:
---------------
$string = 'foo;bar::baz-qwe';
$search = array('-', ';', '::');
$pos = strpos_array($string, $search, $found, 5);
if ($pos === false) {
    echo "Nothing found";
}
else {
    echo "Found '$found' at $pos";
}

Expected result:
----------------
Found '::' at 7

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 [2010-06-11 14:21 UTC] kalle@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Feedback -Assigned To: +Assigned To: kalle
 [2010-06-11 14:21 UTC] kalle@php.net 
I dont think we should add such functionality that already can be done with a few lines of php code already, combining strpos/stripos with a foreach and you should get your result:

<?php
	function strpos_array_impl($case_sensitive, $haystack, Array $needle, &$found = NULL, $position = 0)
	{
		if(!sizeof($needle) || empty($haystack))
		{
			return(false);
		}

		$strpos_function = ($case_sensitive ? 'strpos' : 'stripos');

		foreach($needle as $temp)
		{
			if(($pos = $strpos_function($haystack, $temp, $found, $position) !== false)
			{
				return($pos);
			}
		}

		return(false);
	}

	function strpos_array($haystack, Array $needle, &$found = NULL, $position = 0)
	{
		return(strpos_array_impl(false, $haystack, $needle, $found, $position));
	}

	function stripos_array($haystack, Array $needle, &$found = NULL, $position = 0)
	{
		return(strpos_array_impl(true, $haystack, $needle, $found, $position));
	}
?>

Dont take that code for granted, as i wrote it on my cell so it might be buggy, but should show what I mean
 [2010-06-11 17:48 UTC] vovan-ve at yandex dot ru 
Yes, such functionality can be done by strpos() foreach needle in the array. But I see at least two ways to make such search more optimal:
1. Make limit for maximal possible position after which we should not search a needles. The strpos() has no such limit, so we need to make substr() after we find next nearest needle.
2. Check length of a next needle and remaining substring to search in.

Of course I can write the function, which do what I need, but I think, that it won't more optimal in PHP code, then build-in PCRE or build-in function I request.
 [2010-10-21 12:35 UTC] kalle@php.net
-Status: Feedback +Status: Open -Assigned To: kalle +Assigned To:
 [2020-02-13 17:18 UTC] cmb@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Suspended
 [2020-02-13 17:18 UTC] cmb@php.net 
This appears to be a controversial feature addition, and as such
deserves to be discussed on the PHP internals mailing list[1].
Feel free to post there; for the time being I'm suspending this
ticket.

[1] <https://www.php.net/mailing-lists.php#internals>
 
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