search for string in php files

Hi,

I am looking for php function which would search for a string(s) in all the PHP files in a specific directory (including subdirectories). If possible, If I can exclude the specific folder while searching. I would want the list of all files using specified string(s).

Any help / lead will be appreciated.

Thanks
Rahul SehrawatAsked:
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Julian HansenCommented:
Does this have to be part of an application or is it separate? Will you need to repeat this process?
There are many tools for searching through files for specific strings or patterns - they differ based on the use-case.
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Rahul SehrawatAuthor Commented:
I am actually creating a application. So it will be part of that. and yes, this process will be repeated time to time.

Thanks
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Olaf DoschkeSoftware DeveloperCommented:
Take a look at http://php.net/manual/de/class.directoryiterator.php 
Once you have a list of files you can iterate them and use http://php.net/manual/de/function.file-get-contents.php to search them for a term.

By the way, many editors have that functionality built in already.

Bye, Olaf.
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Julian HansenCommented:
You could do something like this
<?php
// FOLDER TO SEARCH IN
$target_folder  = "./";
// TEXT TO SEARCH FOR
$searchtext = 'in_array';

// CALL SEARCH FUNCTION
$res = doSearch($target_folder, $searchtext);

// DUMP RESULTS
echo "<pre>" . print_r($res, true) . "</pre>";


// RECURSIVE SEARCH FUNCTION
function doSearch($target, $searchtext) {
  $results = array();
  if (is_dir($target)) {
    if ($dh = opendir($target)) {      
      while(($file = readdir($dh)) != false) {
        if ($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
        if (is_dir($file)) {
          $subdir = "{$target}{$file}/";
          $results = array_merge($results, doSearch($subdir, $searchtext));
        }
        else {
          $ext = strtolower(end(explode('.', $file)));
          if ( $ext == 'php') {
            $path = $target . $file;
            if( strpos(file_get_contents($path),$searchtext) !== false) {
              $results[] = $path;
            }
          }
        }
      }
      closedir($dh);
    }
  }
  return $results;
}

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Rahul SehrawatAuthor Commented:
Hi Julian,

Thanks for the function. I am only facing one issues with the function that when I set target as "../" it doesn't work.

Thanks
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Julian HansenCommented:
Two small changes are needed
1. Prepend the $target path to the file when do an is_dir check
2. Add set_time_limit to the loop to prevent script from timing out if operation takes longer than timeout limit (default 30 sec)

Updated code below
<?php
// FOLDER TO SEARCH IN
$target_folder  = "../";
// TEXT TO SEARCH FOR
$searchtext = 'in_array';

// CALL SEARCH FUNCTION
$res = doSearch($target_folder, $searchtext);

// DUMP RESULTS
echo "<pre>" . print_r($res, true) . "</pre>";


// RECURSIVE SEARCH FUNCTION
function doSearch($target, $searchtext) {
  set_time_limit(120);
  $results = array();
  if (is_dir($target)) {
    if ($dh = opendir($target)) {      
      while(($file = readdir($dh)) != false) {
        if ($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
        if (is_dir($target . $file)) {
          $subdir = "{$target}{$file}/";
          $results = array_merge($results, doSearch($subdir, $searchtext));
        }
        else {
          $ext = strtolower(end(explode('.', $file)));
          if ( $ext == 'php') {
            $path = $target . $file;
            if( strpos(file_get_contents($path),$searchtext) !== false) {
              $results[] = $path;
            }
          }
        }
      }
      closedir($dh);
    }
  }
  return $results;
}

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Rahul SehrawatAuthor Commented:
Awesome. Works like a charm. :)
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Julian HansenCommented:
You are welcome.
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