PHP case-insensitive in_array function

Question

Is it possible to do case-insensitive comparison when using the in_array function?

So with a source array like this:

$a= array(
 \'one\'         


        

Answer 1

The above is correct if we assume that arrays can contain only strings, but arrays can contain other arrays as well. Also in_array() function can accept an array for $needle, so strtolower($needle) is not going to work if $needle is an array and array_map('strtolower', $haystack) is not going to work if $haystack contains other arrays, but will result in "PHP warning: strtolower() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given".

Example:

$needle = array('p', 'H');
$haystack = array(array('p', 'H'), 'U');

So i created a helper class with the releveant methods, to make case-sensitive and case-insensitive in_array() checks. I am also using mb_strtolower() instead of strtolower(), so other encodings can be used. Here's the code:

class StringHelper {

public static function toLower($string, $encoding = 'UTF-8')
{
    return mb_strtolower($string, $encoding);
}

/**
 * Digs into all levels of an array and converts all string values to lowercase
 */
public static function arrayToLower($array)
{
    foreach ($array as &$value) {
        switch (true) {
            case is_string($value):
                $value = self::toLower($value);
                break;
            case is_array($value):
                $value = self::arrayToLower($value);
                break;
        }
    }
    return $array;
}

/**
 * Works like the built-in PHP in_array() function — Checks if a value exists in an array, but
 * gives the option to choose how the comparison is done - case-sensitive or case-insensitive
 */
public static function inArray($needle, $haystack, $case = 'case-sensitive', $strict = false)
{
    switch ($case) {
        default:
        case 'case-sensitive':
        case 'cs':
            return in_array($needle, $haystack, $strict);
            break;
        case 'case-insensitive':
        case 'ci':
            if (is_array($needle)) {
                return in_array(self::arrayToLower($needle), self::arrayToLower($haystack), $strict);
            } else {
                return in_array(self::toLower($needle), self::arrayToLower($haystack), $strict);
            }
            break;
    }
}
}