How to replace all numbers with hyphens in the string?

Question

I explain my question by one example:

Example:

(English version)

$str = '1 healthy, fine, sound 2 tip-top, fit, robust, sturdy & 1  substandard, poor';

I want this output:

- healthy, fine, sound
- tip-top, fit, robust, sturdy
&
- substandard, poor

(Persian version) - It starts from the right

$str ='1 خشكاندن، خشكانيدن 2رطوبتزدايي كردن، نمزدايي كردن & تر کردن';

I want this output:

- خشكاندن، خشكانيدن
- رطوبتزدايي كردن، نمزدايي كردن
&
تر کردن

I know, 1 in this example is really vague. But actually it is the first character in the right. But in SO, because there isn't a proper direction for Persian, 1 goes in the left.

Note: Perhaps there are no numbers or even no &. In this case I don't want any change ..!

$str = 'healthy, fine, sound, tip-top'; // I want this: healthy, fine, sound, tip-top


$str = 'healthy, fine, sound & poor'; /* I want this: healthy, fine, sound
                                                      &
                                                       poor
                                      */

I can do that using multiple str_replace(). But I want to know, is it possible to I do that using REGEX?

Yomna Fahmy · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-17 13:19:08Z

3

This script works for both the English & the Persian variant.

$str = "1 خشكاندن، خشكانيدن 2رطوبتزدايي كردن، نمزدايي كردن & تر کردن";
// $str = '1 healthy, fine, sound 2 tip-top, fit, robust, sturdy & 1  substandard, poor';
$dashed_line = preg_replace("/[0-9]+/", "- ", $str);
$lines = preg_replace("/(?<!^)- /", "\n- ", $dashed_line);
$lines_with_and = preg_replace("/&/", "\n&\n", $lines);
$lines_with_and_single_space = preg_replace("/ +/", " ", $lines_with_and);
echo preg_replace("/(^[\r\n]*|[\r\n]+)[\s\t]*[\r\n]+/", "\n", $lines_with_and_single_space);

answered Dec 17, 2015 at 13:19

Yomna Fahmy

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2 Comments

stack Over a year ago

Your solution is fine. +1. Just there is a small problem. line 9

Yomna Fahmy Over a year ago

Just remove the actual newline (enter) from your string. In other words, define your variable $str in a single line.

Amadan · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-17 02:02:34Z

1

I haven't tested the Persian variant as I have no experience with RTL scripts, but it should work for the English example.

// first let's put all the numbers to a new line
$digit_split_str = preg_replace('/(?<!^)(?=\d)/', "\n", $str);
// then ampersands
$ampersand_split_str = preg_replace('/(?<!^)&/', "\n&\n", $digit_split_str);
// then let's replace the numbers at the start of the string with dashes
$dashed_str = preg_replace('/^\d+/m', "- ", $ampersand_split_str);

EDIT: fixed corner cases around ampersands and newlines...

edited Dec 17, 2015 at 2:02

answered Dec 17, 2015 at 1:57

Amadan

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2 Comments

stack Over a year ago

Well, According to what I tested and as you mentioned, it doesn't work for Persian context. I haven't tested it for English so far. But for Persian, it cuts the string from somewhere ...!

Amadan Over a year ago

I can't help you with that, my editor can't handle RTL input.

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