CakePHP adding array elements to an array - arrays

Question

I think I have my dumber-than-usual head on today.
I am trying to parse text from a textbox in a form to generate an array that I can pass to the find method in cakePHP.
I have used php regular expressions to generate an array of the terms entered (including "phrases included in speech marks" as single item)
This may look like this:
array(
(int) 0 => 'test',
(int) 1 => 'this out',
(int) 2 => 'now')
In the cakePHP cookbook it says that I have to get an array that looks like this (using above example):
array(
array('ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE' => '%test%'),
array('ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE' => '%this out%'),
array('ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE' => '%now%'))
Try as I might, I end up with arrays that do NOT look like an array of arrays.
Typically I am ending up with this horrible looking thing:
array(
(int) 0 => array(
'ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE' => '%test%'
),
(int) 1 => array(
'ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE' => '%this out%'
),
(int) 2 => array(
'ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE' => '%now%'
))
The code for the above is:
$i = 0;
foreach($matches[1] as $match) :
$searcharray['ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE'] = "%" . $match . "%";
array_push($array_full,$searcharray);
$i++;
endforeach;
THis must be a common requirement, so I am hoping one of you guys could put me on the straight an narrow...
Thanks

Answer 1

If you're trying to build a search query (not clear what your goal is), your conditions should all be in the same array within an OR or AND - something like this:
$searchResults = $this->find('all', array(
'conditions' => array(
'OR' => array(
'ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE' => '%test%',
'ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE' => '%this out%',
'ProjectDocumentSectionVariable.variable_description LIKE' => '%now%'
)
)
));
If you want to build it out in a foreach() loop, you can do it something like this:
$conditions = array('OR' => array());
$matches = array('test', 'this out', 'now');
foreach($matches as $match) {
array_push($conditions['OR'], array('variable_description LIKE' => '%' . %match . '%'));
}
$searchResults = $this->find('all', array(
'conditions' => $conditions
));

Answer 2

its as simple as this:
$array= array();
foreach ( $colors as $c):
$uniques[] = $c;
endforeach;
not having the [] will treat it as a regular variable. This will append it to the array