Question

I have an array which I have put into a foreach loop, where each value of the array will be outputted to the user. If the user has entered a search query, the value will be checked againast a regex and only be returned if it matches, otherwise the value is just outputted.

The problem I’m having is I havent been able to figure out how to make a conditional “no results found” output if neither the unconditional or the regex conditional outputs output anything. Code below.

foreach ($result as $value)
{
    // check to see if query term is set and if so run regex comparison
    if (isset($pattern))
    {
        if (preg_match("/^$pattern/i", $value)) 
        {
            echo $value;
            echo "<br />";
        }   
    }

    // if query is not set, simply output the value
    else
    {
        echo $value;
        echo "<br />";
    }

    // and if there has been no output for either the regex conditional, or other output,                   
    // I want output "no results". How?
}

Answer 1

If I understand correctly this is what you need:

$found = false;    
foreach ($result as $value)
{
  if (isset($pattern))
  {
    if (preg_match("/^$pattern/i", $value)) 
    {
      $found = true;
      echo $value;
      echo "<br />";
    }   
  }

  // if query is not set, simply output the value
  else
  {
    $found = true;
    echo $value;
    echo "<br />";
  }
}

if($found)
{
  echo "Sorry, nothing found.";
}