How to manipulate complex strings in php?

Question

I am trying to group bunch of texts from a string and create an array for it.

The string is something like this:

<em>string</em>  and the <em>test</em> here.  
tableBegin rowNumber:2, columnNumber:2  11 22 33 44 tableEnd  
<em>end</em> text here

I was hoping to get an array like the following results

array (0 => '<em>string</em>  and the <em>test</em> here.',
         1=>'rowNumber:5',
         2=>'columnNumber:3',
         3=>'11',
         4=>'22',
         5=>'33',
         6=>'44'
         7=>'<em>end</em> text here')

11,22,33,44 are the table cell data the user enters. I want to make them have unique index but keep the rest of texts together.

tableBegin and tableEnd are just the check for the table cell data

Any help or tips? Thanks a lot!

Your question is not that clear. There are some texts left from your first block of text, not injected into your array list — samayo
– samayo, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 0:44
You can use Regex to solve this. Too late to come up with a functional one though. — silkfire
– silkfire, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 0:44
@Simon_eQ tableBeing and tableEnd are just the check for the string. I thought it would be helpful to add them. I don't want them into array. — FlyingCat
– FlyingCat, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 0:59
@Simon_eQ anything helps..I am stuck..I will check it later though. it's very late here — FlyingCat
– FlyingCat, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 1:05

HamZa · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-20 03:08:50Z

You may try the following, note that you need PHP 5.3+:

$string = '<em>string</em>  and the <em>test</em> here.  
tableBegin rowNumber:2, columnNumber:2  11 22 33 44 tableEnd
SOme other text
tableBegin rowNumber:3, columnNumber:3  11 22 33 44 55 tableEnd
<em>end</em> text here';

$array = array();
preg_replace_callback('#tableBegin\s*(.*?)\s*tableEnd\s*|.*?(?=tableBegin|$)#s', function($m)use(&$array){
    if(isset($m[1])){ // If group 1 exists, which means if the table is matched
        $array = array_merge($array, preg_split('#[\s,]+#s', $m[1])); // add the splitted string to the array
      // split by one or more whitespace or comma --^
    }else{// Else just add everything that's matched
        if(!empty($m[0])){
            $array[] = $m[0];
        }
    }
}, $string);
print_r($array);

Output

Array
(
    [0] => string  and the test here.  

    [1] => rowNumber:2
    [2] => columnNumber:2
    [3] => 11
    [4] => 22
    [5] => 33
    [6] => 44
    [7] => SOme other text

    [8] => rowNumber:3
    [9] => columnNumber:3
    [10] => 11
    [11] => 22
    [12] => 33
    [13] => 44
    [14] => 55
    [15] => end text here
)

Regex explanation

tableBegin : match tableBegin
\s* : match a whitespace zero or more times
(.*?) : match everything ungreedy and put it in group 1
\s* : match a whitespace zero or more times
tableEnd : match tableEnd
\s* : match a whitespace zero or more times
| : or
.*?(?=tableBegin|$) : match everything until tableBegin or end of line
The s modifier : make dots also match newlines

samayo · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-20 02:57:47Z

1

Here is the ugly way to do it, if you can't find a Regex guru out ther.

So, this is your text

$string =   "<em>string</em>  and the <em>test</em> here.  
tableBegin rowNumber:2, columnNumber:2  11 22 33 44 tableEnd  
<em>end</em> text here";

And this is my code

$E = explode(' ', $string);
$A =  $E[0].$E[1].$E[2].$E[3].$E[4].$E[5];
$B =  $E[17].$E[18].$E[19];
$All = [$A, $E[8],$E[9], $E[11], $E[12], $E[13], $E[14], $B];

print_r($All);

And this is the output

Array
(
    [0] => stringandthetesthere.
    [1] => rowNumber:2,
    [2] => columnNumber:2
    [3] => 11
    [4] => 22
    [5] => 33
    [6] => 44
    [7] => endtexthere
)

off-course, the <em> tags won't be visible, unless view the source code.

answered Jul 20, 2013 at 2:57

samayo

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1 Comment

DACrosby Over a year ago

RegEx is the better answer, but I took your aproach as well with using explodes. Here's my version: codepad.org/iSWnWSPm

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