Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites

Searching

Sorting organizes information into a form that aids in finding the exact piece being looked for. If you need to look up a phone number, it's easy to flip through the pages of a phone book until you find the approximate area where the number might be. With a bit of scanning you can find the number, because all the names are in order. For most of us, this process is automatic.

If you want to duplicate this process inside a PHP script, you have to think about each of the steps. The simplest way is to start at the beginning and look at every entry until you find the one you want. If you get to the end and haven't found it, it must not exist. I don't have to tell you this is probably the worst way to search, but sometimes this is all you ...