PHP check if string contains all words and only all words

Question

$string = 'boo-hello--word';
$array = array(
  "boo - hello",
  "boo - hello world",
  "boo - hello world foo",
);

...

foreach ($array as $element) {
  if (string_contains_all_words($string, $element) {
    // True
    $match = $element; // this should be "boo hello world"
   }
}

As (hopefully) the php illustrates above, I have a string with a mixed number of dashes (sometimes one, maybe two). I want to search in an array to see if all words (and only ALL words) (excluding the dashes) exists.

Answer 1

Here's a very simple way of doing it that solves the problem you described.

$string = 'boo-hello--word';
$array = array(
    "boo hello",
    "boo hello world",
    "boo hello word",
    "boo hello world foo",
);

$rep_dashes = str_replace('-', ' ', $string);
$cleaned = str_replace('  ', ' ', $rep_dashes);

if (in_array($cleaned, $array)) {
    echo 'found!';
}

Answer 2

$string = 'boo-hello--world';
$array = array(
  0 => "boo hello",
  1 => "boo hello world",
  2 => "boo hello world foo",
);
$match = null;

$string = preg_replace('~-+~', ' ', $string);
foreach ($array as $i => $element) {
    if ($string == $element) {
    // if (preg_match("~^($string)$~", $element)) { // or
        $match = $element;
        break;
    }
}
print $i; // 1

Answer 3

It's not clear from your question whether the words can be in any order, but I'll assume not. The following code is what I think you're after. :)

<?php
$array = array("boo hello", "boo hello world", "boo hello world foo");
//Removes any dashes (1 or more) from within the string and replaces them with spaces.
$string = trim(preg_replace('/-+/', ' ', $string), '-');
    if(in_array($string, $array) {
        $match = $string;
    } else {
        //not match
    }
?>