Search string for any match to a list of words?

[wryan]

Hello,

 

I am EXTREMELY new to PHP, and coding in general.  I have attempted to search for an answer to this already, but I'm not sure I'm using terminology that will lead me to an solution, as I haven't come up with much.  I'm hoping that someone can provide some assistance, or at least point me in the right direction for some reading. 

 

What I am trying to do it search a string for a match to any of 12 words.  I'm wondering if there is a smarter way to do this than coding 12 different lines, each one looking for a specific word.

 

If you can point me in the right direction, then thank you very much =)

[Anti-Moronic]

You can use preg_match():

 

$string = 'here are a few words!';

if(preg_match("/(here|few|a)/i", $string)){
  echo 'We found a match!';
}

 

Separate your words with |, in the above: (here|few|a)

[wryan]

I realized I should mention something. Depending on which word in the list is matched, I'd like to set a variable = to a different value (a string actually).  Here's a mockup:

 

String = "I'm at home"

 

Word list:

-home

-work

-dentist

-prison

-jupiter

-lost

 

do any of the words in the list show up in the string? If yes, then set string $Status equal to appropriate value for matched word (see below)

 

home = "a"

work = "b"

dentist = "c"

prison = "d"

jupiter = "e"

lost = "f"

 

I hope that makes sense...

[Anti-Moronic]

Ahh, something like this will work for that:

 

$string = 'I am in prison';

$keywords = array('a'=>'home','b'=>'work','c'=>'dentist','d'=>'prison','e'=>'jupiter','f'=>'lost');

foreach($keywords as $wordstatus => $word){
if(preg_match('/'.$word.'/', $string)){
$status = $wordstatus;
break;
}
} 

echo $status;

 

You might be able to replace preg_match above with something else, and there are definitely other ways but I consider this one of the simplest.

[wryan]

Thanks a million, Anti-Moronic!  I'll start playing with that and see where I get =)

[AbraCadaver]

If you're only looking for one value then one of these should work:

 

$words = array('a' => 'home', 'b' => 'work'); //etc...
$string = "I'm at home";

$status = key(array_intersect($words, explode(' ', $string)));

 

 

$words = array('home' => 'a', 'work' => 'b'); //etc...
$pattern = '/\b' . implode('|', array_keys($words)) . '\b/i';

$string = "I'm at home";

if(preg_match($pattern, $string, $matches)) {
    $status = $words[$matches[0]];
}