Group values of array according to regex in PHP - php

Question

I have an array that looks like this:
[0] => name {
[1] => abc
[2] => def
[3] => }
[4] =>
[5] => othername {
[6] => 123
[7] => 456
[8] => 789
[9] => }
[10] =>
As you can see each group (under each name) can have different amount of lines and different items in them but each group starts with the same regex syntax and ends with a closing } and a blank line after that.
I need to get an array for each group (for each name) recursively. I made a preg_match regex that will find each name line but I don't know how to make an array with that having also all the lines that are before the next name group.
So I want to obtain:
array(
array('name {', 'abc', 'def', '}'),
array('othername {', '123', '456', '789', '}')
)
How can I approach this? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Clicquot beat me but I'm not sure his works/is tested. Here's my solution
<?php
$array = array('0' => 'name {', '1' => 'abc', '2' => 'def', '3' => "}\n", '4' => "\n",
'5' => 'othername {',
'6' => '123',
'7' => '456',
'8' => '789',
'9' => '}',
'10' => "\n");
$string = array();
$count = 0;
foreach($array as $value){
$value = trim($value);
$pos = strpos($value, '{');
if ($pos !== false) {
$count++;
}
if(!empty($value)) {
$string[$count][] = $value;
}
}
print_r($string);

Answer 2

Maybe this code is what you asked for. But I'd never use it myself. If you try to build a code parser you shuold look for parsing-trees with a "grammar" or syntax analysis. It is part of parsing and compilers. The slide bellow shows how a compiler or interpreter can work. If you are only aiming to represent your data in order to reach some specific goal, maybe you can look at formats like json. You should always mention in one sentence what your overall goal is prior to asking a specific question.
(sorry for the German)
The issues of the code below are, that syntax variations can break the code, and you are highly voulnerable because the code changes your php variable contents concerning to the contents of your array.
If you are processing a file with code I do recommend you also to process it streight away, instead of first saving it to an array (which costs more memory).
<?php
$syntaxArray = array(
0 => 'name {',
1 => 'abc',
2 => 'def',
3 => '}',
4 => 'othername {',
5 => '123',
6 => '456',
7 => '789',
8 => '}'
);
$regex_open_array = '-(\w+)\s*{-';
$array_open = false;
foreach($syntaxArray as $line){
$matches = array();
if( preg_match($regex_open_array, $line, $matches) ){
if($array_open){
/*recursive array creations do not work - if that's what you need put it in the comments*/
throw new RuntimeException('An array can not be open while the previous array is not closed');
}
$array_open = true;
/*create an array variable
* ....
* isolate the variable name
*/
$currentArray = $matches[1];
/*you can either create a new variable in your php code with the array name or use a big array and use the name as key
* $big_array[$name] = array();
* using this solution every array name must be only used once.
* of course you can use a name twice if you first check prior to creating a new array if the key is already in use.
*/
/*creates a variable with the given name. Must not overwrite an other arrays name like $syntaxArray*/
$$currentArray = array();
}else if($line == '}'){
/*the closing string could be wrapped with trim() or matched with a regex but I followed your example*/
$array_open = false;
}else{
if(!$array_open){
throw new RuntimeException('There is not array currently open');
}
$arr = &$$currentArray;
$arr[] = $line;
}
}
var_dump($name);
var_dump($othername);
Outputs:
array(2) { [0]=> string(3) "abc" [1]=> string(3) "def" } array(3) { [0]=> string(3) "123" [1]=> string(3) "456" [2]=> string(3) "789" }

Answer 3

This isn't really a regex thing. What you want to do is iterate through the array, and check each item. You'd search through the value there for a '{' or a '}'. When you see an opening bracket, you'd set the key in your "condensed" array that you want to index into, and then check subsequent items for a closing bracket. When you see the closing bracket, you'd change the key that you're indexing into in your "condensed" array or whatever and begin anew. When the value isn't a bracket, append it. It'll look something like this (sorry for the bad PHP):
$big_array = array();
$temp_key = NULL;
foreach (array as $key => $value) {
if (strpo($value, '{')) {
$big_array[$key] = array();
$temp_key = $key;
} else if (strpos($value, '}')) {
$temp_key = NULL;
} else {
$big_array[$temp_key].append($value); // or whatever
}
}
This assumes that you having a matching open / close bracket structure , you'd want to add in a ton of error checking of course.