PHP Manual: imap

Description

function imap_search(
    IMAP\Connection $imap,
    string $criteria,
    int $flags = SE_FREE,
    string $charset = ""
): array|false

This function performs a search on the mailbox currently opened in the given IMAP stream.

For example, to match all unanswered messages sent by Mom, you'd use: "UNANSWERED FROM mom". Searches appear to be case insensitive. This list of criteria is from a reading of the UW c-client source code and may be incomplete or inaccurate (see also » RFC1176, section "tag SEARCH search_criteria").

Parameters

imap

An IMAP\Connection instance.

criteria

A string, delimited by spaces, in which the following keywords are allowed. Any multi-word arguments (e.g. FROM "joey smith") must be quoted. Results will match all criteria entries.

ALL - return all messages matching the rest of the criteria
ANSWERED - match messages with the \\ANSWERED flag set
BCC "string" - match messages with "string" in the Bcc: field
BEFORE "date" - match messages with Date: before "date"
BODY "string" - match messages with "string" in the body of the message
CC "string" - match messages with "string" in the Cc: field
DELETED - match deleted messages
FLAGGED - match messages with the \\FLAGGED (sometimes referred to as Important or Urgent) flag set
FROM "string" - match messages with "string" in the From: field
KEYWORD "string" - match messages with "string" as a keyword
NEW - match new messages
OLD - match old messages
ON "date" - match messages with Date: matching "date"
RECENT - match messages with the \\RECENT flag set
SEEN - match messages that have been read (the \\SEEN flag is set)
SINCE "date" - match messages with Date: after "date"
SUBJECT "string" - match messages with "string" in the Subject:
TEXT "string" - match messages with text "string"
TO "string" - match messages with "string" in the To:
UNANSWERED - match messages that have not been answered
UNDELETED - match messages that are not deleted
UNFLAGGED - match messages that are not flagged
UNKEYWORD "string" - match messages that do not have the keyword "string"
UNSEEN - match messages which have not been read yet

flags

Valid values for flags are SE_UID, which causes the returned array to contain UIDs instead of messages sequence numbers.

charset

MIME character set to use when searching strings.

Return Values

Returns an array of message numbers or UIDs.

Return false if it does not understand the search criteria or no messages have been found.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.1.0	The `imap` parameter expects an IMAP\Connection instance now; previously, a valid `imap` resource was expected.

Examples

Example #1 imap_search() example

<?php
$imap   = imap_open('{imap.example.com:993/imap/ssl}INBOX', 'foo@example.com', 'pass123', OP_READONLY);

$some   = imap_search($imap, 'SUBJECT "HOWTO be Awesome" SINCE "8 August 2008"', SE_UID);
$msgnos = imap_search($imap, 'ALL');
$uids   = imap_search($imap, 'ALL', SE_UID);

print_r($some);
print_r($msgnos);
print_r($uids);
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

Array
(
    [0] => 4
    [1] => 6
    [2] => 11
)
Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 2
    [2] => 3
    [3] => 4
    [4] => 5
    [5] => 6
)
Array
(
    [0] => 1
    [1] => 4
    [2] => 6
    [3] => 8
    [4] => 11
    [5] => 12
)

imap_search

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Changelog

Examples

See Also