php how to split an array string into two by condition - php

Question

i have a simple array of prices, which is formed as a result of data entry by users
array(4) {
[0] => string(4) "18"
[1] => string(4) "20"
[2] => string(4) "10"
[3] => string(4) "17"
}
The minimum and maximum values ​​are displayed in the frontend like 10-20$
But, in one field, the user can enter a range of values, like this:
array(3) {
[0]=> string(9) "18-28"
[2]=> string(9) "10-15"
[3]=> string(9) "16-22"
}
And then the range is displayed as 10-15-18-28$
How to break the lines of array into two, if the line has a "-" or "/"?
Thanks for help:)

Answer 1

You might use explode and use the dash or forward slash as the delimiter. If you want to display the highest and the lowest, you could sort them and use for example rsort.
$a = [
"18-28",
"18-29",
"10-15",
"16-22"
];
rsort($a);
print_r($a);
Result
Array
(
[0] => 18-29
[1] => 18-28
[2] => 16-22
[3] => 10-15
)
Then you can get the first item from the array as the highest and the last item as the lowest range.
echo reset($a).'$'; // 18-29$
echo end($a).'$'; // 10-15$
Php demo

Answer 2

You could use a combination of explode and implode:
$a = [
'18-28',
'10-15',
'16-22'
];
$b = explode('-',implode('-',$a));
echo min($b).'-'.max($b).'$'; // result: 10-28$
If the input may also contain spaces or other dummy characters, or people erratically enter price ranges as "18/28" or "18~28" instead of "10-28" or whatever, a more fool-proof way would be:
$a = [
// crappy formatted example input
'18 - 28 ',
'10/15$',
' 16~22'
];
$b = explode(' ',trim(preg_replace('#[^0-9.]+#si',' ',implode(' ',$a))));
echo min($b).'-'.max($b).'$'; // result: 10-28$
What this does is:
implode all elements of $a into a single string, glued together with spaces
replace all non-numeric parts of the string (anything that isn't a digit or dot) into a single space
trim the string to remove any redundant spaces at the beginning and end (to avoid empty elements)
explode the string using a space as separator, to create a new array containing all individual numbers
take the min and max of the resulting array
If you don't want to support floating point numbers (like 9.95) then remove the dot in the regular expression, i.e. that becomes '#[^0-9]+#si'.