How to Implement Search Suggestions Using the stripos Function in PHP

In modern website development, providing search suggestions can significantly enhance user experience. For instance, when users type a keyword into the search box, the system can give real-time suggestions of possible matches, helping users quickly find the content they need. In PHP, we can easily implement this feature using the stripos function.

What is the stripos Function?

stripos is a function in PHP used to find the position of the first occurrence of a substring in a string. Unlike strpos, stripos is case-insensitive, which is crucial for search suggestions since users’ inputs may not exactly match the case in the database.

int stripos ( string $haystack , string $needle [, int $offset = 0 ] )

• $haystack: The string to search in.

• $needle: The substring to find.

• $offset: An optional parameter to specify the starting point of the search.

Example of Implementing Search Suggestions

Let’s say we have an array of article titles, and when a user enters a keyword, we need to filter and display the titles containing the keyword as suggestions.

<?php  
// Simulated article title data  
$titles = [  
    "PHP Basic Tutorial",  
    "Deep Understanding of JavaScript",  
    "How to Use MySQL for Data Management",  
    "File Handling Techniques in PHP",  
    "Implementing Search Suggestions in PHP",  
    "m66.net Website Development Examples",  
    "10 CSS Tips for Beginners"  
];  
<p>// User's search keyword<br>
$keyword = "php";</p>
<p>// Array to hold suggestion results<br>
$suggestions = [];</p>
<p>foreach ($titles as $title) {<br>
if (stripos($title, $keyword) !== false) {<br>
$suggestions[] = $title;<br>
}<br>
}</p>
<p>// Output suggestions<br>
if (!empty($suggestions)) {<br>
echo "Search Suggestions:<br>";<br>
foreach ($suggestions as $suggestion) {<br>
echo "- <a href="<a rel="noopener" target="_new" class="" href="https://m66.net/search?q=">https://m66.net/search?q=</a>" . urlencode($suggestion) . "">$suggestion</a><br>";<br>
}<br>
} else {<br>
echo "No relevant content found.";<br>
}<br>
?><br>

Sample Output:

If the user enters "php", the output might be:

Search Suggestions:  
- PHP Basic Tutorial  
- File Handling Techniques in PHP  
- Implementing Search Suggestions in PHP  

Each result can link to a search page, for example: https://m66.net/search?q=Implementing Search Suggestions in PHP

Conclusion

Using the stripos function, we can easily implement a simple search suggestion feature. Its case-insensitive nature makes it ideal for quickly filtering small data sets. However, for larger datasets, it's recommended to use full-text indexing in databases or search engines like Elasticsearch to improve performance and accuracy.

Although search suggestions are a small feature, they can greatly enhance user experience and make our website smarter and more user-friendly. We hope this article helps you master practical stripos techniques and build more powerful and easy-to-use PHP applications!