Question

So I am trying to check to see if this array has an underscore in it. I am not sure if I am using the correct function to do this. Any input would be appreciated.

Some more info, if the array does have an underscore I want it to run the code below. This code seperates and gives me the attributes that I want. I also check if it has and S and then run some code. These are all output to queries which are then queried at the end.

    if (count($h)==3){
           if (strpos($h[2], '_') !== false)  // test to see if this is a weird quiestion ID with an underscore
               {
                    if (strpos($h[2], 'S') !== false)
                    {
                     // it has an S
                     $underscoreLocation = strpos($h[2], '_');
                     $parent = substr($h[2], 0, $underscoreLocation - 6); // start at beginning and go to S
                     $title = substr($h[2], $underscoreLocation - 5, 5);
                     $questions = "select question from lime_questions where sid =".$h[0]." and gid =".$h[1]." and parent_qid =".$parent." and title =".$title.";";
                    }
                    else
                    {
                     // there is no S
                     $underscoreLocation = strpos($h[2], '_');
                     $parent = substr($h[2], 0, $underscoreLocation - 2);
                     $title = substr($h[2], $underscoreLocation - 1, 1);
                     $questions = "select question from lime_questions where sid =".$h[0]." and gid =".$h[1]." and parent_qid =".$parent." and title =".$title.";";
                    }    
               }

           else
           {
            $questions = "select question from lime_questions where sid =".$h[0]." and gid =".$h[1]." and qid =".$h[2].";";
           }

Answer 1

strpos() is a good function to use when checking to see if a substring exists within a string, so your basic premiss is fine.

The haystack you’re submitting to the strpos() (i.e. $h[2]) is a string , isn’t it? You say in your question that you’re checking if an array contains an underscore, but the code only checks to see if a single array item contains an underscore – these are two very different things.

If $h[2] is a sub array instead of just a string within the $h array then you need to iterate through the subarray and check each item.

so:

  for ($x=0; $x<count($h[2]); $x++) {
     if (strpos($h[2][$x], "_")!==false) {
         if (strpos($h[2][$x], 'S') !== false) {
            // Run code
         } else { 
            // Run code
         }
     }
  }

If $h[2] is just a string then what you have should be fine.

---

Update: try adding

print($h[2][$x].' - '.strpos($h[2][$x], ''));

on the line before

print ($h[2][$x].' - '.strpos($h[2][$x], '')); 

This should give us an idea of what the problem is.

---

Update:

Based n the code we just ran things are very different from what I thought. First of all, not all of the $h arrays returned have 3 items. Secondly $h2 is a stirng, not a subarray.

so here’s the new code:

  if (count($h)==3) {
     print($h2.' | ');
     if (strpos($h[2], "_")!==false) {
         print(' underscore was found | ');
         if (strpos($h[2], 'S') !== false) {
            // Run code
         } else { 
            // Run code
         }
     }
  } else {
     // array does not represent a question
  }

Also, you need to change all of the $h[2][$x] back to just $h[2]. Tell me how it goes.