php explode() function issue - spaces

Question

I wish to split a text string into words separated by spaces. I use

$words=explode(" ", $text);

Unfortunately, this method doesn't work well for me, because I want to know how many spaces are in between.

Is there any better way to do that than going through the whole $text, symbol by symbol, using while statement to fill out $spaces ( $spaces=array(); ) with integers (number of spaces, in most cases it is 1) and read text into $words=array() symbol by symbol?

Here is an additional explanation.

$text="Hello_world_____123"; //symbol "_" actually means a space

Needed:

$words=("Hello","world","123");
$spaces=(1,5);

Hm... substr_count will give me 6 for the example above. preg_split to split by (any num of) will split the string into 3 words. How will I know 6=5+1, but not 3+3? — Haradzieniec
– Haradzieniec, Commented Apr 17, 2012 at 18:34

Tchoupi · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-17 18:34:35Z

2

Use a regular expression instead:

$words = preg_split('/\s+/', $text)

EDIT

$spaces = array();
$results = preg_split('/[^\s]+/', $text);
foreach ($results as $result) {
  if (strlen($result) > 0) {
     $spaces [] = strlen($result);
  }
}

edited Apr 17, 2012 at 18:34

answered Apr 17, 2012 at 18:21

Tchoupi

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3 Comments

Ozzy Over a year ago

He just needs the number of spaces.

webbiedave Over a year ago

How does this answer the OP's question?

Tchoupi Over a year ago

I was blinded by the 'I wish to split a text string into words separated by spaces' part

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 20:42:18Z

1

There are many ways to do what you're trying to do, but I would probably choose a combination of preg_split() and array_map():

$text = 'Hello world     123';
$words = preg_split('/\s+/', $text, NULL, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
$spaces = array_map(function ($sp) {
    return strlen($sp);
}, preg_split('/\S+/', $text, NULL, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY));

var_dump($words, $spaces);

Output:

array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(5) "Hello"
  [1]=>
  string(5) "world"
  [2]=>
  string(3) "123"
}
array(2) {
  [0]=>
  int(1)
  [1]=>
  int(5)
}

edited Nov 17, 2023 at 20:42

CommunityBot

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answered Apr 17, 2012 at 18:36

FtDRbwLXw6

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1 Comment

Haradzieniec Over a year ago

That's elegant, compact and I believe it's fast (faster than using for statement I guess). It works. Thank you.

Ozzy · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-17 18:22:39Z

0

You can still get the number of spaces inbetween like this:

$words = explode(" ", $text);
$spaces = sizeof($words)-1;

Wouldn't that work for you?

answered Apr 17, 2012 at 18:22

Ozzy

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3 Comments

Haradzieniec Over a year ago

Thanks, but that doesn't say how many spaces are between each pair of words at all, even doesn't say the total number of spaces.

Ozzy Over a year ago

@Haradzieniec I thought you wanted to split up each word? What word has spaces in them? :/ The number of spaces is in $spaces (number of words in array - 1)

Haradzieniec Over a year ago

I put an explanation, an example into a question. Thank you.

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