Regular Expression from csv like to php array declaration

Question

Is there a way, using a regular expression (or few regular expressions in cascade), to convert a csv like text into something similar to a php array declaration, having an arbitrary number of fields?

For instance, the regular expression should go from this:

field1 field2 field3 field4 ...
value1 value2 value3 value4 ...

to this:

"field1" => "value1",
"field2" => "value2",
"field3" => "value3",
"field4" => "value4",
...

Is that possible using just regular expressions? Do you have suggestions about a practical implementation?

AdrianHHH · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-24 13:42:58Z

1

You could do multiple search and replaces that search for ^ *(\w+)(.*)\r\n *(\w+) and replace with !\1=\3\r\n\2\r\n, assuming Windows style line endings. Then run another simple edit to remove the leading ! characters. Using the example from the question

field1 field2 field3 field4 ...
value1 value2 value3 value4 ...

The first replacement yields:

!field1=value1
 field2 field3 field4 ...
 value2 value3 value4 ...

The next replacement yields:

!field1=value1
!field2=value2
 field3 field4 ...
 value3 value4 ...

After two more replacements it completes leaving:

!field1=value1
!field2=value2
!field3=value3
!field4=value4
 ...
 ...

The remaining edits would need to tidy up ! and the . characters.

The search string allows optional spaces at the beginning of the line the ^ *. It then looks for a field-name (\w+) and the rest of that line (.*) and a line separator \r\n. Next it looks for optional spaces then a field-value with *(\w+).

The replacement just reorders the found fields and adds a leading ! so that a subsequent replace-all operation will not find thefields already matched.

Not exactly sure how to map this on to PHP, but it works fine in Notepad++ version 6.5.5.

edited Jun 24, 2014 at 13:42

answered Jun 24, 2014 at 13:35

AdrianHHH

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5 Comments

clami219 Over a year ago

I'll try this! Just be careful: the dots imply more fields, not just dots

clami219 Over a year ago

The idea is good, but the regexp just doesn't work... have you tried it under a pcre environment?

AdrianHHH Over a year ago

@clami219 have you used the "correct" line endings for your PCRE version? (Note that PCRE has many meanings.)

clami219 Over a year ago

PCRE stands for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions. Anyway, you are right, the problem was with the line endings! Good job!

AdrianHHH Over a year ago

@clami219 I meant that there are several systems that claim to provide PCREs but they all provide slightly different facilities. I am happy that my answer helped you.

Amal · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-24 13:34:10Z

1

You can't do that with pure regex. But you can do it in PHP with arrays simply:

$text = "field1 field2 field3 field4 ...
          value1 value2 value3 value4 ...";

$arr = explode("\n", $text);

$field = explode(' ', $arr[0]);
$value = explode(' ', $arr[1]);

Then you can use a foreach loop to do this

edited Jun 24, 2014 at 13:34

Amal

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answered Jun 24, 2014 at 13:26

user3731366

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1 Comment

Amal Over a year ago

That's not how you use functions in PHP. $arr = explode("\n", $text);, but anyway this wouldn't help the OP.

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