Undesired output for php array creation - php

Question

I am trying to create an array from input in a textarea.
I have a file named with a textarea.The textarea might contain values like(exactly the way it looks):
CREATE this.
DO that.
STOP it.
Basically,I want to use PHP to :
Create an array out of the values given by the textarea for example,the array madefrom th values of the textarea above is meant to be :
Array
(
[0] => create this
[1] => do this
[2] => Stop it
)
I'v e tried the following code:
<?php
$wholecode=$_POST['code'];
$code=explode('.',trim(strtolower($wholecode)));//convert code to array
$words=explode(' ', $code);
print_r($code);
I get
Array
(
[0] => create this
[1] =>
do this
[2] =>
stop it
[3] =>
)
As it clearly shows,that is not what I want.Please help

Answer 1

You just need to tidy up the array contents after creating it. You have things like new lines and potentially other whitespace around the content.
This uses array_map() to trim() each entry in the array. Then uses array_filter() to remove any empty elements (calling it with no callback will do this).
$wholecode=$_POST['code'];
$code=explode('.',trim(strtolower($wholecode)));//convert code to array
$code=array_map("trim", $code );
$code = array_filter($code);
print_r($code);

Answer 2

Here's a direct approach using a simple regex pattern to explode on dots followed by zero or more whitespace characters. No mopping up after splitting.
Code (Demo)
$_POST['code'] = 'CREATE this.
DO that.
STOP it.';
var_export(preg_split('~\.\s*~', strtolower($_POST['code']), -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY));
Output:
array (
0 => 'create this',
1 => 'do that',
2 => 'stop it',
)
As a variable...
$array = preg_split('~\.\s*~', strtolower($_POST['code']), -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY)
Explanation transferred from my comment:
Pattern Demo: https://regex101.com/r/jygaQ1/1
There are 3 dots in your sample data. The first two have whitespaces characters that immediately follow. The final dot has no trailing whitespace characters.
The \s* means "match zero or more whitespace characters.
-1 means perform unlimited explosions.
PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY means that on the final explosion (the last dot) there will be an empty element generated, but preg_split() will disregard it in the output array.