Search for a Value in a Multidimensional Array in PHP

I needed to check whether a value existed inside a multidimensional PHP array, and the native functions didn’t cover the case — especially when array keys are strings.

The solution

A recursive function that traverses the entire nested structure:

function in_multiarray($elem, $array)
{
    while (current($array) !== false) {
        if (current($array) == $elem) {
            return true;
        } elseif (is_array(current($array))) {
            if (in_multiarray($elem, current($array))) {
                return true;
            }
        }
        next($array);
    }
    return false;
}

How to use it

$array = [
    'level1' => [
        'level2' => [
            'target_value',
            'other_value'
        ]
    ]
];

$found = in_multiarray('target_value', $array); // true

The function descends recursively through each level of the array. If the current element is another array, it calls itself to continue the search.

Hope it helps!