Refactor nested foreach loop based on object property

Question

I'm using a levenshtein matching algorithm to match a title to a filename (for anime). I either use the main show title for matching or its alternative titles (flexget_titles).

For that I have the following snippet of code.

public function matchFilenameToShow($filename)
{
 $shows = $this->shows->getAll();
 $shortest = -1;
 $clean_name = $this->removeEpisodeNumber($this->cleanFilename($filename));
 foreach ($shows as $show) {
 if (!empty($show->flexget_titles_array)) {
 foreach ($show->flexget_titles_array as $title) {
 // calculate the distance between the input string filename,
 // and the current show name
 $lev = levenshtein(strtolower($clean_name), strtolower($title));
 // if this distance is less than the next found shortest
 // distance, OR if a next shortest distance to the word has not yet been found
 if ($lev <= $shortest || $shortest < 0) {
 // set the closest match, and shortest distance
 $matchedShow = $show;
 $shortest = $lev;
 }
 }
 } else {
 // calculate the distance between the input string filename,
 // and the current show name
 $lev = levenshtein(strtolower($clean_name), strtolower($show->title));
 // if this distance is less than the next found shortest
 // distance, OR if a next shortest distance to the word has not yet been found
 if ($lev <= $shortest || $shortest < 0) {
 // set the closest match, and shortest distance
 $matchedShow = $show;
 $shortest = $lev;
 }
 }
 }
 return $matchedShow;
}

Obviously there is code repetition and I want to refactor this. However I'm not sure how to do it. I have a feeling that I need to extract that levenshtein part to a separate method, but I need to return 2 variables.

Answer 1

You can create "fallback" version of nested array in the case when $show->flexget_titles_array is empty and handle it with the same nested foreach loop:

...
foreach ($shows as $show) {
 ($arr = $show->flexget_titles_array) || ($arr = array($show->title));
 foreach ($arr as $title) {
 // calculate the distance between the input string filename,
 // and the current show name
 $lev = levenshtein(strtolower($clean_name), strtolower($title));
 // if this distance is less than the next found shortest
 // distance, OR if a next shortest distance to the word has not yet been found
 if ($lev <= $shortest || $shortest < 0) {
 // set the closest match, and shortest distance
 $matchedShow = $show;
 $shortest = $lev;
 }
 }
}
...

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