Check to see if a string contains any substring values from an array. The first instance will be returned with a message.

check_string_against_array.php

<?php
$searchstring = "Alan Coleman is Grrrrate!";
$arraycheck = array("\*", "!", "@", ",", "%");


if (preg_match('/'.implode('|', $arraycheck).'/', $searchstring, $matches)) {
    echo("Fail, the string '{$matches[0]}' was found in the search string.");
} else {
    echo("Pass, None of the strings in the array were found in the search string.");
}
?>