Question

Is there a better way to search through $_SESSION variables (or any array) for a particular string than:

foreach($_SESSION as $k => $v){
    if(strstr($k, 'p_')){

Thanks.

edit: My keys will look similar to:

p_123
p_456
i_123
…

Answer 1

If your $_SESSION structure must stay “as is”, IMO it is Ok.

However if all ‘p_’ elements could go under an array index like $_SESSION['p'] = array('key1' => 'val1', ...), you could retrieve all ‘p’ elements at once.

BTW this is only micro optimization, go with the structure you’re fine with.

EDIT: Just be careful with strstr(): if one day you must store keys like i_123_p_456 into your $_SESSION array, you should switch to if (strpos($k, 'p_') === 0).