How to extract multiple values from a string to call an array?

Question

I want to extract values from a string to call an array for basic template functionality:

$string = '... #these.are.words-I_want.to.extract# ...';

$output = preg_replace_callback('~\#([\w-]+)(\.([\w-]+))*\#~', function($matches) {
    print_r($matches);
    // Replace matches with array value: $these['are']['words-I_want']['to']['extract']
}, $string);

This gives me:

Array
(
    [0] => #these.are.words-I_want.to.extract#
    [1] => these
    [2] => .extract
    [3] => extract
)

But I'd like:

Array
(
    [0] => #these.are.words-I_want.to.extract#
    [1] => these
    [2] => are
    [3] => words-I_want
    [4] => to
    [5] => extract
)

Which changes do I need to make to my regex?

Seems like an explode('.', $yourvar) is what you need.

Jared Farrish
– Jared Farrish

2014-06-29 12:36:03 +00:00
Commented Jun 29, 2014 at 12:36 — Jared Farrish
– Jared Farrish, Commented Jun 29, 2014 at 12:36

Ja͢ck · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-29 12:54:02Z

3

It seems that the words are simply dot separated, so match sequences of what you don't want:

preg_replace_callback('/[^#.]+/', function($match) {
    // ...
}, $str);

Should give the expected results.

However, if the # characters are the boundary of where the matching should take place, you would need a separate match and then use a simple explode() inside:

preg_replace_callback('/#(.*?)#/', function($match) {
    $parts = explode('.', $match[1]);
    // ...
}, $str);

edited Jun 29, 2014 at 12:54

answered Jun 29, 2014 at 12:38

Ja͢ck

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 19:53:52Z

3

You can use array_merge() function to merge the two resulting arrays:

$string = '... #these.are.words-I_want.to.extract# ...';
$result = array();

if (preg_match('~#([^#]+)#~', $string, $m)) {
   $result[] = $m[0];
   $result = array_merge($result, explode('.', $m[1]));
}

print_r($result);

###Output:

Array
(
    [0] => #these.are.words-I_want.to.extract#
    [1] => these
    [2] => are
    [3] => words-I_want
    [4] => to
    [5] => extract
)

edited Nov 17, 2023 at 19:53

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Jun 29, 2014 at 12:51

anubhava

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3 Comments

zx81 Over a year ago

Hey there anu, nearly identical answer, deleting mine and +1 to you :) Off to sleep catch you tomorrow.

anubhava Over a year ago

Sorry just came back online, missed identical answer part otherwise I would have avoided answering it.

zx81 Over a year ago

No, you're absolutely fine, my original answer didn't have the demo, and when you started on your answer I must have been in IDEONE trying to make mine work. We probably got there around the same time, and you got there in a shorter amount of time, so kudos to you. :) After I posted, I saw that yours was similar and had a small bug but you fixed it. My answer doesn't add anything, hope yours gets some upvotes. Sorry, too chatty, powering down the computer see you tomorrow.:)

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