List all node titles to better iterate on a list of names

Question

I have a content type called Country and I have to verify what countries already exists in db and save the missing ones, comparing to a variable with all countries ($country_list). I am having trouble accessing countries names of my nodes, that are specified as the content type title.

  $country_list = ['Mexico', 'Tanzania', 'Brazil', 'Camaron'];
  $nodes = node_load_multiple(array(), array('type' => 'country_profile'));
  $nodes_name = node_title_list($nodes);

  foreach ($country_list as $country_name) {
    if (!in_array($nodes_name, $nodes)) {
      // should create new node
    } else {
      // shouldn't do anything
    }
  }

The problem is, when i get the node_title_list() it doesn't return the 'raw title' (see output below)

Output:

    Array
(
    [#theme] => item_list__node
    [#items] => Array
        (
            [0] => <a href="/discover/country_profiles/tanzania">Tanzania</a>
            [1] => <a href="/discover/country_profiles/mexico">Mexico</a>
        )

    [#title] => 1
)

How can i do that, so that the output of this list is

Array
        (
            [0] => "Tanzania"
            [1] => "Mexico"
        )

Answer 1

If you just need to create the nodes that don't have a specific title (which I guess it's just a country name), you don't need to use node_title_list(), whose purpose is rendering a list of node titles as links. Just load the nodes and check which titles aren't already used.

$country_list = ['Mexico', 'Tanzania', 'Brazil', 'Camaron'];

$query = new EntityFieldQuery();
$query->entityCondition('entity_type', 'node')
  ->entityCondition('bundle', 'country_profile')
  // Remove the following line if you don't need to get only published nodes.
  ->propertyCondition('status', NODE_PUBLISHED)
  // Keep the following line, so Drupal won't check if the currently logged-in user has access to the nodes and the fields.
  ->addTag('DANGEROUS_ACCESS_CHECK_OPT_OUT');
$result = $query->execute();
if (isset($result['node'])) {
  $country_list = array_flip($country_list);
  $nodes = entity_load('node', array_keys($result['node']));
  foreach ($nodes as $node) {
    unset($country_list[$node->title]);
  }
  $country_list = array_flip($country_list);
}

if (!empty($country_list)) {
  // There are nodes that need to be created; their titles are in $country_list.
}

Even better, load those nodes whose title is equal to one of the country names you already have.

$country_list = ['Mexico', 'Tanzania', 'Brazil', 'Camaron'];

$query = new EntityFieldQuery();
$query->entityCondition('entity_type', 'node')
  ->entityCondition('bundle', 'country_profile')
  // Remove the following line if you don't need to get only published nodes.
  ->propertyCondition('status', NODE_PUBLISHED)
  ->propertyCondition('title', $country_list)
  // Keep the following line, so Drupal won't check if the currently logged-in user has access to the nodes and the fields.
  ->addTag('DANGEROUS_ACCESS_CHECK_OPT_OUT');
$result = $query->execute();
if (isset($result['node'])) {
  $country_list = array_flip($country_list);
  $nodes = entity_load('node', array_keys($result['node']));
  foreach ($nodes as $node) {
    unset($country_list[$node->title]);
  }
  $country_list = array_flip($country_list);
}

if (!empty($country_list)) {
  // There are nodes that need to be created; their titles are in $country_list.
}