Question

I’m working on the following code:

// $data has only one dimension AND at least one of its values start with a "@"
if ( (count($data) == count($data, COUNT_RECURSIVE))
  && (count(preg_grep('~^@~', $data)) > 0) )
{
    // do nothing
}

else
{
    // do something
}

The logic of this condition is working just fine, however, I would prefer if I could get rid of the empty if block while evaluating the second condition only if the first one yields true – otherwise the preg_grep() call will throw the following notice when $data has more than one dimension:

Notice: Array to string conversion

I know I could use the error suppression operator or some other hacky approaches, but I have the feeling that I’m missing something trivial. Can someone help me out, please?

Answer 1

First, obvious way:

if (!( (count($data) == count($data, COUNT_RECURSIVE))
    && (count(preg_grep('~^@~', $data)) > 0)) )
{
    // everything is cool, nothing to do
}

else
{
    // do something
}

Second, correct way

if ((count($data) < count($data, COUNT_RECURSIVE))
 || (count(preg_grep('~^@~', $data)) == 0))
{
    // everything is cool, nothing to do
}

else
{
    // do something
}