Regex Pattern required PHP - mix of strings and words

Question

I need help with a particular regex match. This is php. (Editing a wordpress plugin)

Let's say the string is

"[youtube|sjdhskajxn|This is a string|This is also a string|44|55]"

I want to extract

{0} -> youtube
{1} -> sjdhskajxn
{2} -> This is a string
{3} -> This is also a string
{4} -> 44
{5} -> 55

Also the number of items to be matched will not be constant.

I think you need [explode](http://php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php) by `|` sign. — Rikesh, May 01 '13 at 12:31
Do you need to be able to escape the `|` or square brackets somehow so that a string can have a `|` in it if need be? — Wolfman Joe, May 01 '13 at 12:36
like here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1374643/use-preg-replace-to-replace-character-unless-an-escape-character-precedes — Waygood, May 01 '13 at 12:38
@WolfmanJoe I can't see that being a requirement. I will be in full control of the inputs.. It's highly unlikely I will have a string with | in it — Dave Lawrence, May 01 '13 at 12:39
If that is a wordpress plugin, rewrite it to use the [shortcode API](http://codex.wordpress.org/Shortcode_API) - not that it is perfect (your regex is equally limited at best) - it's also the standard way to such stuff in plugins. Do no re-invent the wheel. — hakre, May 01 '13 at 12:49
@Waygood That's how I would begin to write a plugin but the already in existence plugin I'm using has regex. I have it working now anyway. Thanks. — Dave Lawrence, May 01 '13 at 12:58

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 01 '13 at 12:33

2

$string = '[youtube|sjdhskajxn|This is a string|This is also a string|44|55]';
$string = str_replace(array('[',']'), '', $string); //remove brackets

$result = explode('|', $string); //explode string into an array

answered May 01 '13 at 12:33

Damien Pirsy

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Trivially works, but it wouldn't work if you need to have `|` or the square brackets as part of the contained text, with an escape character. – Wolfman Joe May 01 '13 at 12:38

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 01 '13 at 12:32

1

Use explode() function

$str = "[youtube|sjdhskajxn|This is a string|This is also a string|44|55]";
$str = str_replace(array('[',']'), '', $str);
$pieces = explode("|", $str);

answered May 01 '13 at 12:32

Sumit Bijvani

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`trim()` with `[]` is an alternative to `str_replace()`. It works on the ends of the string not the entire string – Waygood May 01 '13 at 12:37

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 01 '13 at 12:33

If you want to allow Unicode characters:

preg_match_all('/[\pL\pN\pZ]+/u', $subject, $result, PREG_PATTERN_ORDER);
$result = $result[0];

Otherwise (just ASCII), it's simpler:

preg_match_all('/[a-z0-9\s]+/i', $subject, $result, PREG_PATTERN_ORDER);
$result = $result[0];

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 01 '13 at 12:37

1

$raw = '[youtube|sjdhskajxn|This is a string|This is also a string|44|55]';

// remove brackets only at beginning/end
$st = preg_replace('/(^\[)|(\]$)/', '', $raw);

$parts = explode('|', $st);

answered May 01 '13 at 12:37

Paul Roub

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I know everyone touched on some part of the answer so thank you all. – Dave Lawrence May 01 '13 at 12:57

Regex Pattern required PHP - mix of strings and words

4 Answers4