How to explode a string by any integer? Regex?

Question

This seems like it must be so simple, but regular expressions are extremely confusing to me. I am grabbing $_GET variables that will look like typeX, optionX, groupX, etc. where X equals any positive whole integer. I need to then split the string at the integer so that type1 becomes an array of "type and "1", however type10 must become an array of "type and "10" not "type" and "1" and "0".

I am wholly unfamiliar with regex patterns but ended up coming up with:

$array = preg_split("#\\d+#", $key, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
print_r($array);

but it just removed the number from the end rather than split the string into two arrays as was shown by the result:

Array ( [0] => type )

Also, I am unsure as if this would further split the number ten into a one and a zero, which I don't want. I feel like this is probably a mind numbingly simple solution but I am spinning in circles here.

Marcus · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-26 20:26:11Z

13

You should use the PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE flag to capture the group which you made the split on. Here's an example:

<?php

$key= "group12";
$pattern = "/(\d+)/";

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

?>

Note that you combine several flags using the | "bitwise or" operator.

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => group
    [1] => 12
)

answered Oct 26, 2011 at 20:26

Marcus

12.6k5 gold badges50 silver badges66 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Colton McCormack Over a year ago

That worked a treat. I was playing with PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE earlier but must have done something incorrectly. Thank you!

ComFreek · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-26 20:21:03Z

2

Try this one:

/(\D+)(\d+)/

PHP example code:

<?php
$str = 'test189';
$pattern = '/(\D+)(\d+)/';

$res = preg_match_all($pattern, $str, $matches);
var_dump($matches);

?>

answered Oct 26, 2011 at 20:21

ComFreek

29.5k18 gold badges107 silver badges157 bronze badges

Comments

daiscog · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-26 20:25:06Z

1

Use preg_match with capturing parentheses:

<?php

$str = "type10";

$matches = array();

preg_match('/([a-zA-Z]+)(\d+)/', $str, $matches );

print_r($matches);

?>

Outputs:

Array(
    0 => "type10"
    1 => "type"
    2 => "10"
)

Then, to get rid of the first element:

<?php
array_shift($matches);
print_r($matches);
?>

To give:

Array(
    0 => "type"
    1 => "10"
)

answered Oct 26, 2011 at 20:25

daiscog

12.2k8 gold badges55 silver badges63 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to explode a string by any integer? Regex?

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related