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# ldap_search

ldap_search -- Search LDAP tree

## Description

`int ldap_search`(int link_identifier, string base_dn, string filter, array [attributes]);

Returns a search result identifier or false on error.

ldap_search() performs the search for a specified filter on the directory with the scope of LDAP_SCOPE_SUBTREE. This is equivalent to searching the entire directory. `base_dn` specifies the base DN for the directory.

There is a optional fourth parameter, that can be added to restrict the attributes and values returned by the server to just those required. This is much more efficient than the default action (which is to return all attributes and their associated values). The use of the fourth parameter should therefore be considered good practice.

The fourth parameter is a standard PHP string array of the required attributes, eg array("mail","sn","cn") Note that the "dn" is always returned irrespective of which attributes types are requested.

Note too that some directory server hosts will be configured to return no more than a preset number of entries. If this occurs, the server will indicate that it has only returned a partial results set.

The search filter can be simple or advanced, using boolean operators in the format described in the LDAP doumentation (see the Netscape Directory SDK for full information on filters).

The example below retrieves the organizational unit, surname, given name and email address for all people in "My Company" where the surname or given name contains the substring $person. This example uses a boolean filter to tell the server to look for information in more than one attribute.

Example 1. LDAP search
    // $ds is a valid link identifier for a directory server

    // $person is all or part of a person's name, eg "Jo"

    $dn = "o=My Company, c=US";
    $filter="(|(sn=$person*)(givenname=$person*))";
    $justthese = array( "ou", "sn", "givenname", "mail");

    $sr=ldap_search($ds, $dn, $filter, $justthese);

    $info = ldap_get_entries($ds, $sr);

    print $info["count"]." entries returned<p>";

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