PHP Count the lenght of each value in a array/string (tags)

Question

Users writing an article have the option to write some tags, tags are written like this:

tag1, tag2, tag3

So tags are stored like: $tags = "tag1, tag2, tag3";

I want to make sure, every tag has a minimum of 3 characters, so i need to validate the tags.

I have tried this:

$tagsstring = explode(",", $tags);

$tagslength = array_map('strlen', $tagsstring);

if (min($tagslength) < 3) {
echo "Error... Each tag has to be at least 3 characters.";
}

It seems to work, sometimes... But of you write:

tag1, df

It wont give an error.

Any suggestions?

Frederick Behrends · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-15 23:25:03Z

4

$tagsstring = explode(",", $tags);

$trimmedtags = array_map('trim', $tagsstring);
$tagslength = array_map('strlen', $trimmedtags);

if (min($tagslength) < 3) {
echo "Error... Each tag has to be at least 3 characters.";
}

use this version it trims your strings before calcutlating the length.

answered Apr 15, 2012 at 23:25

Frederick Behrends

3,09526 silver badges47 bronze badges

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

Comments

Jon · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-15 23:30:50Z

3

The issue is that by exploding on a bare comma on input such as tag1, df you make the resulting array be ['tag1', ' df'] -- the second string actually has a length of 3.

The are two approaches to fix this that spring to mind:

Simply array_map with trim before calculating the lengths:

$tagsstring = explode(",", $tags);
$tagsstring = array_map('trim', $tagsstring);
$tagsstring = array_map('strlen', $tagsstring);

Use a regular expression and preg_split to do the splitting:

$tagsstring = preg_split("/\s*,\s*/", $tags);
$tagsstring = array_map('strlen', $tagsstring);

See it in action.

edited Apr 15, 2012 at 23:30

answered Apr 15, 2012 at 23:24

Jon

439k85 gold badges756 silver badges820 bronze badges

Comments

Baba · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-15 23:40:41Z

1

If i understand you correctly you said you want make sure I want to make sure, every tag has a minimum of 3 characters

if you are only worried about alphabetical charters then its a different game that means

tab1 is valid

tab200 is valid

t299 not valid

ta444 not valid

If this what you want then you can use this

$tags = "tag1, tag2, ta11  ,tag3 , df ";
$tags = explode ( ",", $tags );

function checker($tag) {
    preg_match_all ( '/[a-zA-Z]/u', $tag, $matches );

    return count ( $matches [0] );
}
foreach ( $tags as $tag ) {
    if (checker ( $tag ) < 3) {
        echo "Error... Each tag ($tag) has to be at least 3 characters.\n";
    }
}

Output

Error... Each tag ( ta11  ) has to be at least 3 characters.
Error... Each tag ( df ) has to be at least 3 characters.

answered Apr 15, 2012 at 23:40

Baba

95.3k29 gold badges172 silver badges222 bronze badges

2 Comments

2by Over a year ago

Thank you Baba, nice solution. Numeric characters is allowed though. But maybe it should not be, and then this solution is nice to have, thanks

Baba Over a year ago

+1 i like when people take their time to review and appreciate everyone who as made effort to help them ...

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP Count the lenght of each value in a array/string (tags)

3 Answers 3

Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related