Compare multiple values in PHP

Question

I'd like to go from this:

if($var == 3 || $var == 4 || $var == 5 || $var =='string' || $var == '2010-05-16') {
   // execute code here
}

to this:

if($var == (3, 4, 5, 'string', '2010-05-16')) { // execute code here }

Seems very redundant to keep typing $var, and I find that it makes it a bit cumbersome to read. Is there a way in PHP to do simplify it in this way? I read on a post here that when using XQuery you can use the = operator as in $var = (1,2,3,4,5) etc.

Answer 1

Place the values in an array, then use the function in_array() to check if they exist.

$checkVars = array(3, 4, 5, "string", "2010-05-16");
if(in_array($var, $checkVars)){
    // Value is found.
}

http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.in-array.php

Answer 2

If you need to perform this check very often and you need good performance, don't use a slow array search but use a fast hash table lookup instead:

$vals = array(
    1 => 1,
    2 => 1,
    'Hi' => 1,
);

if (isset($vals[$val])) {
    // go!
}

Answer 3

if (in_array($var, array(3, 4, 5, 'string', '2010-05-16'))) {execute code here }

Or, alternatively, a switch block:

switch ($var) {
    case 3:
    case 4:
    case 5:
    case 'string':
    case '2010-05-16':
        execute code here;
        break;
}

Answer 4

You can use in_array().

if (in_array($var, array(3,4,5,"string","2010-05-16"))) { .... }

Answer 5

Or you can use in_array()

if(in_array($var,array(4,5,'string','2010-05-16',true)) {

}

Answer 6

Just to give an alternative solution to the use of in_array:

In some cases it could be faster to set an array where the values are keys and then check with isset()

Example:

$checkVars= [3 => true, 
             4 => true, 
             5 => true, 
             "string" => true, 
             "2010-05-16" => true];

if(isset($checkVars[$var])
{
   // code here
}

EDIT: I have done some testing and it looks like this method is faster in most cases.

Answer 7

$vals = array (3, 4, 5, 'string', '2010-05-16');
if(in_array($var, $vals)) {
  //execute code here
}

Answer 8

I've had this problem and solved it by making this function:

function orEquals(){
    $args = func_get_args();

    foreach($args as $arg){
        if ($arg != $args[0]){
            if($arg == $args[0]){
                return true;
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    unset($args);
}

then you can just call the function like this:

if(orEquals($var, 3, 4, 5, 'string', '2010-05-16')){
//your code here
}