How do I include this regular expression when creating an object? - php

Question

After my $plates = explode(';', $plates); i'd like to include another regular expression when creating a new $dossier (in my foreach):
$minus = preg_replace('~[-]~', '', $license_plates);
How would I do that?
This is my code:
public function addLicensePlates(Request $request)
{
$product_id = $request->input('product_id');
$license_plates = $request->input('license_plates');
$plates = preg_replace('~\s+|[.,:;*/_]~', ';', $license_plates); // \s+|[.,:;*/_]
$plates = explode(';', $plates);
foreach($plates as &$plate) {
$dossier = new Dossier;
$dossier->license_plate = trim($plate);
$dossier->product_id = $product_id;
$dossier->save();
}
}
PS: I don't want to add the - to the $plates expression, but after the explode.

Answer 1

I suggest editing the existing function as follows:
Use trim() on the input string when preg_replaceing to get rid of empty values later
Use str_replace to replace the hyphens later in the foreach block.
See the PHP demo:
$license_plates = " WORD-HERE 36-LXD-5";
$plates = preg_replace('~\s+|[.,:;*/_]~', ';', trim($license_plates)); // trim the incoming value
$plates = explode(';', $plates);
foreach($plates as &$plate) {
$license_plate = str_replace('-', '', $plate); // Remove hyphens
echo $license_plate. "\n";
}
Output: WORDHERE and 36LXD5.