PHP Properties Parser - php

Question

Im making a property parser, and I want it to be able to parse a string of any length.
For example, I would like to be able to do the following call:
getDynamicProp("cheese:no;sauce:yes;chicken:brown", "sauce");
and have "yes" returned from it.
Here is what I've got so far:
function getDynamicProp($string , $property){
$args = func_num_args();
$args_val = func_get_args();
$strlen = mb_strlen($string);
$propstrstart = mb_strpos($string , $property . ":");
$propstrend1 = substr($string , $propstrstart , )
$propstrend = mb_strpos($string , ";" , $propstrstart);
$finalvalue = substr($string , $propstrstart , $propstrend);
$val = str_replace($property . ":" , "" , $finalvalue);
$val2 = str_replace(";" , "" , $val);
return $val2;
}

Answer 1

You can try this. The function uses explode to transform strings into arrays, which are more easily manipulable :
function getDynamicProp($string , $property){
$the_result = array();
$the_array = explode(";", $string);
foreach ($the_array as $prop) {
$the_prop = explode(":", $prop);
$the_result[$the_prop[0]] = $the_prop[1];
}
return $the_result[$property];
}
$the_string = "cheese:no;sauce:yes;chicken:brown";
echo getDynamicProp($the_string,"cheese");
echo getDynamicProp($the_string,"sauce");
echo getDynamicProp($the_string,"chicken");

Answer 2

I think you make it over-complicated, or I didn't understand what you want.
I will go with regex instead of making position search.
Here is what I'll use:
function getDynamicProp($string , $property){
if (preg_match('/(^|;)' . $property . ':(?P<value>[^;]+)/', $string, $matches)) {
return $matches['value'];
}
return false;
}
Check here to visualize regex

Answer 3

You would be better off using json_encode and json_decode if you are in control of this string. If not it's much easier like this:
function getDynamicProp($string, $property) {
$string = str_replace(array(':',';'), array('=','&'), $string);
parse_str($string, $result);
return $result[$property];
}
Or store them as cheese=no&sauce=yes&chicken=brown. Then it's even easier still.