How to filter the values of an array in drupal

Question

In drupal we have check_plain function to filter the unwanted codes from a text, I have an array which I am storing directly, in that case, I need to check each value before storing, is there a function to which we can pass the array and it should filter and reset the array.

Ex - I have a form where users can add as many names as they want using (multiple textfield) the name of the textfield is - guarantors[]

So I have an array where all the userinput is there, inorder to filter, I need to filter each value of array using foreach.

is there a function or way, so that I can directly pass the array to a function and it should return me an array with safe values, i.e each values should be parsed using check_plain function.

I think an expample may help you answer better, here is my example array.

Array
(
[0] => Array
    (
        [keyword] => lucidus
        [color] => #00ff00
    )

[1] => Array
    (
        [keyword] => commoveo
        [color] => #998899
    )

[2] => Array
    (
        [keyword] => dolus
        [color] => #ff0099
    )

)

NOTE :: keyword and color are user input values. And those needs to be filtered, it is and can be a multidimensional array.

Many Thanks

Answer 1

This is an old question, but there didn't seem to be a decent answer yet...

There is no out-of-the-box solution but it's easy to write a function that recursively walks the array and applies a filter function to the keys and values.

<?php
function clean_array($array, $filter = 'check_plain') {
  $clean = array();
  foreach ($array as $key => $val) {
    if (is_array($val)) {
      $clean[$filter($key)] = clean_array($val, $filter);
    }
    else {
      $clean[$filter($key)] = $filter($val);
    }
  }
  return $clean;
}
?>

This also gives you the flexibility to use filter_xss or check_markup instead.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

I think array map is what you are looking for. This function takes a callback and an array as arguments, returns an array of all the processed values.

Code example, ripped out of php.net man page:

<?php
function cube($n)
{
    return($n * $n * $n);
}

$a = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
$b = array_map("cube", $a);
print_r($b);
?>

Content of $b will be : Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 8 [2] => 27 [3] => 64 [4] => 125 )

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You can do it using PHP function array_filter .

Find the example below

<?php
  function myfunction($v)  {
    $os = array("Dog", "Cat");
    if (in_array($v, $os)) {
      return true;
    }        
    return false;
  }
  $a=array(0=>"Dog",1=>"Cat",2=>"Horse");
  print_r(array_filter($a,"myfunction"));
?>

// Above example will return an array with Dog & Cat as values !