Question

So i have a string, representing several objects (tags in this case)
i.e.: “php,mysql,doctrine2”
Let’s say my database already has “php” and “doctrine2”.
Now i want the best way to add the missing elemets (in this case mysql).

Should i create an object for every element and just use persist/sync or something, or is there a better way?

I need all the objects at the end anyway to add them to a new object (with a simple many-to-many relation) anyway.

I’d be happy about any suggestions.

Answer 1

1) Pull out all your tag names with a single query into an array

2) Use array_filter along with a closure to detect tags not present in the dataset

3) Create an insert for the new tags

$currentTags = getCurrentTagsArray();
$newTags = explode(',', 'php,mysql,doctrine2');

$newTagsToSave = array_filter($currentTags, function($item) use ($newTags){
    if (in_array($item, $newTags))
    {
       return false;
    }
    return true;
});

Or…

You can use Doctrine 2’s ArrayCollection wrapper (\Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection()) it has pretty much the same implementation above as a filter method (you still need to pass the closure).

$myCollection->filter($closure);