php How to search files in a directory for an exact line match?

[Ibredd]

\[code\]$allfiles = glob($searchdir."*.txt");$elist = array();foreach($allfiles as $file){ $lines = array_merge($elist, file($file, FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES | FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES));}foreach ($lines as $existing){ // this echos a number // echo "<br />Existing".$existing."<br />"; if (preg_match("/\b".$searchforthis."\b/i", $existing)) { echo "A match was found."; continue; } else { echo "A match was not found."; $nodupe ="y"; continue; }}\[/code\]In the above I am attempting to check for a match in a directory of files and return a true or false for the next step. It is obviously not working. I echoed the line in attempt to troubleshoot but, I get a number not the word on the line.The file(s) being searched single column of words with only 100 lines each. There may be up to 5 of them in the directory.I echoed the paths and other vars and all is correct. In just never finds a match.I know I should learn mysql but, I need this to work.I am also unsure about the continue or break. This routine resides in a for loop inside an if.I want this to stop looking when a match was found.Thanks for any guidance.I added the file write part here in case I messed that up causing the problem. It writes a number to the file and does not append even when I bypass the append switch below and null the statement that does not..\[code\]/****Write the entry if no match******/if ($nodupe != "y"){ if($append == "n"){ $name .= $searchforthis."\n"; file_put_contents($filepath.$writefile.".txt", $name, LOCK_EX); } else{ file_put_contents($filepath.$writefile.".txt", $name, FILE_APPEND | LOCK_EX); } } \[/code\]