Two simple ways to find values in arrays. Simple and useful 😉

Option 1: in_array

With the in_array function, PHP provides an easy way for finding values in arrays out of the box. Here is how it works.

$array = ['foo', 'bar'];

if (in_array('foo', $array)) {
    // do something ...
}

Quite easy. The thing with in_array is that I kinda never see it being used - and I really don't know why ... 🤔

Option 2: Illuminate\Support\Collection

With the Illuminate\Support\Collection class that Laravel provides you can do the same thing but a bit more readable - in my opinion 😉

$collection = collect(['foo', 'bar']);

if ($collection->contains('foo')) {
    // do something
}

Also nice, right? 😁

You can also use Laravel collection class outside of Laravel by requiring the illuminate/support package through composer.