Sscanf with regex to match even an empty string

Question

I am using this regex in sscanf

sscanf($seat, "%d-%[^(](%[^@]@%[^)])");

And it works well when i'm getting this kind of strings: 173-9B(AA@3.45 EUR@32H) but when i'm getting this kind of string: 173-9B(@3.14 EUR@32H)

it's all messed up, how can I also accept empty strings between the first ( and the first @ ?

@anubhava not in particular, just that it was more convenient for me. — Dano, Sep 06 '15 at 09:58
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22974628/how-to-get-scanf-to-continue-with-empty-scanset#:~:text=scanf%20does%20not%20handle%20%22empty%22%20fields — mickmackusa, Aug 23 '21 at 22:43

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 06 '15 at 10:05

You would be better off using a regex in preg_match to handle optional data presence in input:

$re = '/(\d*)-([^(]*)\(([^@]*)@([^)]*)\)/';

preg_match($re, '173-9B(@3.45 EUR@32H)', $m);
unset($m[0]);
print_r($m);

Output:

Array
(
    [1] => 173
    [2] => 9B
    [3] =>
    [4] => 3.45 EUR@32H
)

And 2nd example:

preg_match($re, '173-9B(AA@3.45 EUR@32H)', $m);
unset($m[0]);
print_r($m);

Array
(
    [1] => 173
    [2] => 9B
    [3] => AA
    [4] => 3.45 EUR@32H
)

Use of ([^@]*) will make it match 0 more characters that are not @.

Sscanf with regex to match even an empty string

1 Answers1