PHP preg_match (_all) for text range

Question

trying to get Textrange (n words before and after) a search string (myself)

$text = 'Me, my dog and “myself“ are going on a vacation. Irene and myself are broke. Myself is here :P John and myself!';

 preg_match_all("/(?:[^ ]+ ){0,2}(?:[“'"(‘. ])myself(?:[“'")‘. ])(?: [^ ]+){0,2}/", $text, $matches);

this gives me matches :

• dog and “myself“ are going

• myself

But it should be:

• dog and “myself“ are going

• Irene and myself are broke

• John and myself!

Please help me find all matches as text range 2 words before and 2 words after. no matter if there is a special char or whitespace before or after search string (myself) or 'myself' or “myself“ ...

thanks.Sepp

you want to get two word before "myself" and two word after "myself" ? — Yassine CHABLI
– Yassine CHABLI, Commented Apr 4, 2019 at 10:51
yes. no matter if there is a special char or whitespace before or after. — seppzzz
– seppzzz, Commented Apr 4, 2019 at 10:53

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-04 11:14:11Z

1

The problem arises due to the fact that both [“'"(‘. ] and [“'")‘. ] are obligatory and require one char to be there before and after myself. Then, there must also be another space before and after myself required by (?:[^ ]+ ){0,2} and (?: [^ ]+){0,2}.

You may use

'/(?:\S+\s+){0,2}(?:[“'"(‘.])?myself(?:[“'")‘.]?)(?:\s+\S+){0,2}/u'

Or allow any punctuation around myself with \p{P}:

'/(?:\S+\s+){0,2}\p{P}?myself\p{P}?(?:\s+\S+){0,2}/u'

See the regex demo

Note that (?:[“'"(‘.])? and (?:[“'")‘.]?) (or \p{P}?) are all optional, the ? quantifier after them makes the regex engine match only 1 or 0 occurrences of these patterns. So, if it is there or not, the match occurs.

PHP demo:

$text = 'Me, my dog and “myself“ are going on a vacation. Irene and myself are broke. Myself is here :P John and myself!';
if (preg_match_all('/(?:\S+\s+){0,2}\p{P}?myself\p{P}?(?:\s+\S+){0,2}/u', $text, $result)) {
    print_r($result[0]);
}

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => dog and “myself“ are going
    [1] => Irene and myself are broke.
    [2] => John and myself!
)

edited Apr 4, 2019 at 11:14

answered Apr 4, 2019 at 11:02

Wiktor Stribiżew

631k41 gold badges502 silver badges632 bronze badges

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

1 Comment

seppzzz Over a year ago

as far as i see thats working as expected. thanks a lot! sepp.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP preg_match (_all) for text range

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related