Question

I have an array that is structured as such:

$data = array(
    "abc"=>array(
            "label" => "abc",
            "value" => "def",
            "type" => "ghi",
            "desc" => "jkl",
            ),
    "def"=>array(
            "label" => "mno",
            "value" => "qrs",
            "type" => "tuv",
            "desc" => "wxyz",
            ),
    );

I want to use preg_match with a foreach loop to perform a search on the arrays contained in $data and return the nested arrays of key value pairs.

Answer 1

Something like this?

<?php
$data = array(
    "abc"=>array(
            "label" => "abc",
            "value" => "def",
            "type" => "ghi",
            "desc" => "jkl",
            ),
    "def"=>array(
            "label" => "mno",
            "value" => "qrs",
            "type" => "tuv",
            "desc" => "wxyz",
            ),
    );

$matches = array();
$pattern = "/a/i";  //contains an 'a'
//loop through the data
foreach($data as $key=>$value){
    //loop through each key under data sub array
    foreach($value as $key2=>$value2){
        //check for match.
        if(preg_match($pattern, $value2)){
            //add to matches array.
            $matches[$key]=$value;
            //match found, so break from foreach
            break;
        }
    }
}
echo '<pre>'.print_r($matches, true).'</pre>';
?>