PHP: Tokenizing input string for command-line website - php

Question

I am working on a small side-project that involves building a command-line/terminal-like interface. I've chosen to use Symfony's Console component as the backbone for the main functionality.
What's troubling me is how to handle the various forms of input the user can give.
Here's an example:
Let's say I'd like to create a MessageCommand that take's both arguments as well as options (option names are prefixed with --). This command should have the functionality to read and send a message to another user. To send a message, the user should be able to enter this, without quotes, like so:
message send --title Hello there --text How are you doing?
So, this is the code I'm trying to get to work for the example above:
private function tokenize($input)
{
$tokens = array();
$isOption = false;
$len = strlen($input);
$previous = '';
$buffer = '';
for ($i = 0; $i < $len; $i++)
{
$current = $input[$i];
switch ($current)
{
case '-';
if ($previous == '-')
{
$isOption = true;
}
$buffer .= '-';
break;
default:
if ($isOption || $current != ' ')
{
$buffer .= $current;
}
elseif ($current == " " && $previous != " " && strlen($buffer) > 0)
{
$tokens[] = $buffer;
$buffer = "";
}
}
$previous = $current;
}
if (strlen($buffer) > 0)
{
$tokens[] = $buffer;
}
return $tokens;
}
.. which, in it's current state, tokenizes said string into:
array(
'message',
'send',
'--title Hello there --text How are you doing?'
)
So, I am asking you for help as to how I should modify above code, so that it would give an array like this instead:
array(
'message',
'send',
'--title',
'Hello there',
'--text',
'How are you doing?'
)
Thank you so much in advance!

Answer 1

I would explode your input with space, and then in a loop and check if substr( $string_n, 0, 2 ) === "--", then concatenate all the next rows untill i find again this "--".
$input = 'message send --title Hello there --text How are you doing?';
$rows = explode(' ', $input);
$tokens = array();
$isOption = false;
foreach ($rows as $row) {
if(substr($row, 0, 2) === '--') {
$isOption = true;
$tokens[] = $row;
} else if($isOption === true && substr($tokens[count($tokens) - 1], 0, 2) !== '--') {
$tokens[count($tokens) - 1] .= ' ' . $row;
} else {
$tokens[] = $row;
}
}
var_dump($tokens);
what i get in the var_dump :
array(6) {
[0]=>
string(7) "message"
[1]=>
string(4) "send"
[2]=>
string(7) "--title"
[3]=>
string(11) "Hello there"
[4]=>
string(6) "--text"
[5]=>
string(18) "How are you doing?"
}