search()

Collect all values matching a wildcard path.

Signature

JsonFast::search(
    string $json,
    string $path,
    ?int $output = OUTPUT_ARRAY
): mixed

Parameters

Name	Type	Default	Description
$json	string	—	JSON document
$path	string	—	Path with [*] wildcard segments
$output	?int	OUTPUT_ARRAY	Output mode

Path syntax

Use [*] to match every element at that array level:

Path	Meaning
users[*].email	Every email under every users entry
items[*].tags[*]	Nested wildcards (when structure allows)

Wildcards are only supported in search(), not in get().

Returns

PHP array of matched values (default output). Empty array when nothing matches.

Examples

$json = <<<'JSON'
{
  "users": [
    {"email": "allan@example.com"},
    {"email": "bob@example.com"}
  ]
}
JSON;

$emails = JsonFast::search($json, 'users[*].email');
// ['allan@example.com', 'bob@example.com']

Filter pipeline:

$activeIds = JsonFast::search($feed, 'records[*].id');
// all ids across every record in the array

Related

• get() — single path, no wildcards
• extract() — fixed list of paths