PHP in_array not behaving as expected

Question

here is my function:

function checkArray($color,$file) {
    $color = trim($color);
    $settings = getSettings($file,1);
    if (in_array($color,$settings)) return true;
    else return false;
}

$settings in this context is an array:

Array
(

    [0] => Black
    [1] => Blackpol
    [2] => Blk
    [3] => Blue
    [4] => Bronz
    [5] => Bronze
    [6] => Brz
)

i have this function looping a few times with the $color parameter changing each time. sample values are "Black","Blue", etc. long story short, checkArray() should return false very few times.

however, it is returning false EVERY time and i cannot for the life of me figure out why. i tried case insensitive searches, trim, printing individual outputs and comparing the strings ("Black" vs "Black")...i am not new to php or arrays but i can't figure out why this would possibly return false. help please!

PRINT_R of $settings (right before the if statement)

  Array
    (
    [0] => Black

    [1] => Blackpol

    [2] => Blk

    [3] => Blue

    [4] => Bronz

    [5] => Bronze

    [6] => Brz

    [7] => Bz

    [8] => Cherry

    [9] => Gold

    [10] => Gun

    [11] => Gunmet

    [12] => Gunmetal

    [13] => Pol

    [14] => Poly

    [15] => Quentin

    [16] => Rootbeer

    [17] => Vis
    )

VAR DUMP OF $color (right before if statement)

string(5) "Black"

Do a var_dump of $settings and $color right before the if statement to double check variable values. You may have overlooked something. — user142162
– user142162, Commented Apr 24, 2011 at 17:34
You really should just return in_array($color, $settings); — Rafe Kettler
– Rafe Kettler, Commented Apr 24, 2011 at 17:36
print_r($settings) outputs Array ( [0] => Black [1] => Blackpol [2] => Blk [3] => Blue [4] => Bronz [5] => Bronze [6] => Brz [7] => Bz [8] => Cherry [9] => Gold [10] => Gun [11] => Gunmet [12] => Gunmetal [13] => Pol [14] => Poly [15] => Quentin [16] => Rootbeer [17] => Vis ) vardump $color outputs string(5) "Black" — Alex
– Alex, Commented Apr 24, 2011 at 17:36
@Alex: I would like to see a var_dump of $settings instead of a print_r. Looks like you don't have strings in $settings, but another datatype. — Jürgen Thelen
– Jürgen Thelen, Commented Apr 24, 2011 at 17:44

Jürgen Thelen · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-24 17:47:42Z

2

There you go, you got trailing blanks in the strings. Remove them and you're be fine.

answered Apr 24, 2011 at 17:47

Jürgen Thelen

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1 Comment

Jürgen Thelen Over a year ago

You're welcome. Happens to me every now and then, too ^^. That's why I dropped usage of print_r years ago and only use var_dump. Saved me countless times...

Halcyon · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-24 17:42:24Z

1

Could it be that there are newline characters behind the values in the settings array?

Check your getSettings function, make sure you trim the values there as well.

answered Apr 24, 2011 at 17:42

Halcyon

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Comments

mario · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-24 17:46:53Z

1

Well, the print_r output suggests that each line contains an extra \n linebreak at the end. The use of $file also indiciates that you read it from a file. If so, you just need to trim the input.

You can either adapt getSettings to read it in using:

file($file, FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES)

Or post-process it in your color test function:

$settings = array_map("trim", $settings);

answered Apr 24, 2011 at 17:46

mario

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Comments

magma · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-24 17:47:26Z

0

Make sure that you are not mixing encodings.

This could be a solution:

in_array( mb_strtolower($color, "UTF-8"), $settings)

answered Apr 24, 2011 at 17:47

magma

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