Regex: Split string on number/string?

Question

Consider the following:

700italic
regular
300bold
300bold900

All of those are different examples, only one of the rows will be executed per time.

Expected outcome:

// 700italic
array(
    0 => 700
    1 => itailc
)

// regular
array(
    0 => regular
)

// 300bold
array(
    0 => 300
    1 => bold
)

// 300bold900
array(
    0 => 300
    1 => bold
    2 => 900
)

I made the following:

(\d*)(\w*)

But it's not enough. It kinda works when i only have two "parts" (number|string or string|number) but if i add a third "segment" to it i wont work.

Any suggestions?

Nope since \w matches digits as well. It'd have to be (\d*)(\w*?)(\d*) — steffen
– steffen, Commented Dec 13, 2012 at 15:44
Related content: How to separate letters and digits from a string in php — mickmackusa
– mickmackusa ♦, Commented Apr 10 at 13:31

Martin Ender · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-13 15:43:53Z

5

You could use preg_split instead. Then you can use lookarounds that match a position between a word an a letter:

$result = preg_split('/(?<=\d)(?=[a-z])|(?<=[a-z])(?=\d)/i', $input);

Note that \w matches digits (and underscores), too, in addition to letters.

The alternative (using a matching function) is to use preg_match_all and match only digits or letters for every match:

preg_match_all('/\d+|[a-z]+/i', $input, $result);

Instead of captures you will now get a single match for every of the desired elements in the resulting array. But you only want the array in the end, so you don't really care where they come from.

answered Dec 13, 2012 at 15:43

Martin Ender

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:27:14Z

1

Could use the PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE flag.

Example:

<?php

$key= "group123425";
$pattern = "/(\d+)/";

$array = preg_split($pattern, $key, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
print_r($array);

?>

Check this post as well.

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:27

CommunityBot

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answered Dec 13, 2012 at 15:49

SeanWM

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Comments

hakre · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-13 16:01:27Z

1

You're looking for preg_split:

preg_split(
    '((\d+|\D+))', $subject, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE | PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY
)

Demo

Or preg_match_all:

preg_match_all('(\d+|\D+)', $test, $matches) && $matches = $matches[0];

Demo

edited Dec 13, 2012 at 16:01

answered Dec 13, 2012 at 15:56

hakre

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Comments

Anirudha · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-13 15:44:04Z

0

You should match it instead of splitting it..

Still you can split it using

(?<=\d)(?=[a-zA-Z])|(?<=[a-zA-Z])(?=\d)

answered Dec 13, 2012 at 15:44

Anirudha

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1 Comment

Martin Ender Over a year ago

+1 for writing exactly the same solution at pretty much exactly the same time ;)

dan1111 · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-13 15:47:31Z

0

You can use a pattern like this:

(\d*)([a-zA-Z]*)(\d*)

Or you can use preg_match_all with a pattern like this:

'/(?:[a-zA-Z]+|\d+)/'

Then you can match an arbitrary number of segments, each consisting of only letters or only digits.

answered Dec 13, 2012 at 15:47

dan1111

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Comments

Zemistr · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-13 15:51:36Z

0

Maybe something like this:

(\d*)(bold|italic|regular)(\d*)

or

(\d*)([a-zA-Z]*)(\d*)

answered Dec 13, 2012 at 15:51

Zemistr

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