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I have a log that our web application builds. Each month it contains around 16,000 entries of a string with about the average sentence worth of text.

To filter/search through these in our admin panel the script uses preg_match() but this seems to be taking ages and timing out on the 30sec limit. I have isolated that it is indeed the preg_match() that causes the time out.

Is there a more efficient way to search through values in a large array for a users input?

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    Are you really using complicated regular expressions inside preg_match or just searching for a substring?
    – galymzhan
    Apr 1, 2012 at 8:23
  • 16,000 entries could easily be loaded into notepad++ and you can run simple searches and regular expression searches. Why code? You could even write a macro do that automatically.
    – NoChance
    Apr 1, 2012 at 8:56
  • Just searching for a substring, and no I cannot use a desktop based program as our account managers (IT noobs) need to be able to search.
    – hozza
    Apr 2, 2012 at 18:59
  • On a side note, is there a better method for using complicated regular expressions? - as I do this also.
    – hozza
    Apr 2, 2012 at 19:11

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I would research in_array() and array_search() to see if they catch what you're looking for. Otherwise, use a for loop and use stripos() on each entry's text, which is my normal tool for searching in strings.

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  • I cannot use in_array() or array_search() as they require an exact match. Third option is what im after! Thanks.
    – hozza
    Apr 2, 2012 at 19:04

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