PHP RegEx split to 2D array? - php

Question

Is it possible to convert the following string in to an array with PHP and preg_match_all, e.g;
The string will always be one character and a number followed by a space.
String: "C1 X2 B10"
$array[0][type]=>"C"
$array[0][number]=>1
$array[1][type]=>"X"
$array[1][number]=>2
$array[2][type]=>"B"
$array[2][number]=>10

Answer 1

You can use named groups in your regex:
$str = "C1 X2 B10";
$re = '~(?P<type>[A-Z])(?P<number>\d+)~';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $m, PREG_SET_ORDER);
print_r($m);
which gives you
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => C1
[type] => C
[1] => C
[number] => 1
[2] => 1
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => X2
[type] => X
[1] => X
[number] => 2
[2] => 2
)
etc
so you can use $m[1]['type'] directly.

Answer 2

Of course, you can always use the regex for this which is WAAAAY faster, but I wanted to show you that you can do it without regex. There are more ways to solve a problem. As Harvey Specter, the character from "Suits" would say: "If someone points a gun to your head, there are 146 ways you can defend yourself" ;)
Here... try this:
$string = 'C1 X2 B10';
$explode = explode(' ', $string);
$i = 0;
foreach ($explode as $exp){
$number = substr($exp, 1);
$letter = substr($exp, 0, 1);
$array[$i]['type'] = $letter;
$array[$i]['number'] = $number;
$i++;
}
echo '<pre>';
print_r($array);
echo '</pre>';
the output will be:
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[type] => C
[number] => 1
)
[1] => Array
(
[type] => X
[number] => 2
)
[2] => Array
(
[type] => B
[number] => 10
)
)
WARNING!! This solution will work only if you have only 1 letter, only at the beginning, with space separated elements in the string!
Hope this helps! :D