Symfony2-Doctrine -- Selecting data with WHERE from DoctrineArray - symfony

Question

In an entity I have a field that looks like this:
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="array")
*/
protected $category;
and QueryBuilder
$qb = $this->createQueryBuilder('s');
$qb->select($fields)
->where( 's.category IN (:category)') //////////// <----
->orderBy('s.name', 'ASC')
->setParameter('category', $category_id);
So in database field category is Doctrine2 Array. I want to select records from database with QueryBuilder. My question is, how can i do this, with WHERE clause that will be checking fields from that array ?

Answer 1

A look here may help you
// Instead, use $qb->expr()->in('value', array('?1')) and bind your parameter to ?1 (see section above)
public function in($x, $y); // Returns Expr\Func instance

Answer 2

$qb->select($fields)
->where($qb->expr()->in('s.category', $categories))

Answer 3

#Cerad gave you a perfectly valid comment. One of the problem of storing arrays is that you don't have any chance of searching.
See PHP/MySQL - Storing array in database, and Storing arrays in the database. As you can see, it is a terrible practice.
The best way is to simply create a Category entity, and to have a OneToMany relation with that category.
Here is an example of an entity Book that has many categories:
1 Create your category entity:
class Category implements CategoryInterface
{
//.....
/**
* Title of the category
*
* #ORM\Column(type="string", length=100)
*/
protected $title;
/**
* Relation with your book entity for example
*
* #ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="Book", inversedBy="categories")
* #ORM\JoinColumn(name="book_id", referencedColumnName="id")
*/
private $book;
/**
* Set book
*
* #param BookInterface $book
*/
public function setBook(BookInterface $book)
{
$this->book = $book;
}
/**
* Get book
*
* #return BookInterface
*/
public function getBook()
{
return $this->book;
}
}
2 Your book entity:
use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
class Book implements BookInterface
{
/**
* Categories for the books
*
* #ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="Category", mappedBy="book")
* #var CategoryInterface[]
*/
protected $categories ;
public function __construct()
{
$this->categories = new ArrayCollection();
}
/**
* Add Categories
*
* #param CategoryInterface $category
*/
public function addCategory(CategoryInterface $category)
{
$category->setBook($this);
$this->categories->add($category);
}
/**
* Remove Category
*
* #param CategoryInterface $category
* #return bool
*/
public function removeCategory(CategoryInterface $category)
{
return $this->categories->removeElement($category);
}
/**
* Get Categories
*
* #return Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
*/
public function getCategories()
{
return $this->categories;
}
/**
* Set Categories
*
* #param ArrayCollection $categories
*/
public function setCategories($categories) {
$this->categories->clear();
foreach ($categories as $category) {
$this->addCategory($category);
}
return $this;
}
3 Your can now search properly.