Wildcards

Wildcards allow you to match multiple items in arrays and collections using the * symbol. They work across all Data Helpers classes and enable powerful bulk operations.

Basic Wildcard Usage

Use * to match any single segment at that position:

$data = [
    'users' => [
        ['name' => 'Alice', 'email' => 'alice@example.com'],
        ['name' => 'Bob', 'email' => 'bob@example.com'],
    ],
];

$accessor = new DataAccessor($data);
$emails = $accessor->get('users.*.email');
// $emails = ['users.0.email' => 'alice@example.com', 'users.1.email' => 'bob@example.com']

Deep Wildcards

Multiple * can appear in one path:

$data = ['orders' => [['items' => [['sku' => 'ABC'], ['sku' => 'DEF']]]]];
$accessor = new DataAccessor($data);
$skus = $accessor->get('orders.*.items.*.sku');
// $skus = ['orders.0.items.0.sku' => 'ABC', 'orders.0.items.1.sku' => 'DEF']

Wildcard Operators

Use SQL-like operators with wildcards:

• WHERE - Filter items
• ORDER BY - Sort items
• LIMIT/OFFSET - Pagination
• GROUP BY - Aggregations
• DISTINCT - Remove duplicates

See DataMapper for detailed examples.

See Also

• Dot-Notation Paths
• DataMapper