PHP Regex to find first 3 match between slash - php

Question

I have a string like this:
$url = '/controller/method/para1/para2/';
Expected output:
Array(
[0] => 'controller',
[1] => 'method',
[2] => array(
[0] => 'para1',
[1] => 'para2'
)
)
I am trying to build a regex to achieve this but not able to construct the pattern properly.
Please assist.
I tried to use explode function to split,
$split_url = explode('/',$url);
$controller = $split_url[1];
$method = $split_url[2];
unset($split_url[0]);
unset($split_url[1]);
unset($split_url[2]);
$para = $split_url;
But this is really not a great way of doing this and is prone to errors.

Answer 1

whithout regex:
$url = '/controller/method/para1/para2/para3/';
$arr = explode('/', trim($url, '/'));
$result = array_slice($arr, 0, 2);
$result[] = array_slice($arr, 2);
print_r($result);
Note: if you need to always have parameters at the same index (even if there is no method or parameters), you can change $result[] = array_slice($arr, 2); to $result[2] = array_slice($arr, 2);

Answer 2

Here's a slightly nasty method using explode:
$url = '/controller/method/para1/para2/para3/';
# get rid of leading and trailing slashes
$url = trim($url, '/');
$arr = explode('/', $url);
$results = array( $arr[0], $arr[1], array_slice($arr, 2) );
print_r($results);
Output:
Array
(
[0] => controller
[1] => method
[2] => Array
(
[0] => para1
[1] => para2
[2] => para3
)
)
It will work for any number of para elements.
And just to show that regexs are not scary, they're lovely fluffy friendly things, here's a regex version:
preg_match_all("/\/(\w+)/", $url, $matches);
$arr = $matches[1];
$results = array( $arr[0], $arr[1], array_slice($arr, 2) );
It's actually very easy to match this URL -- just search for / followed by alphanumeric characters (\w+).

Answer 3

How about something like:
$url = '/controller/method/para1/para2/para3/';
$regex = '~^/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/(?:(.*)/)?$~';
if(preg_match($regex, $url, $matches)) {
$controller = $matches[1];
$method = $matches[2];
$parameters = explode('/', $matches[3]);
}
This will capture 3 segments separated by a leading/trailing /. The 3rd segment of parameters can then be split with explode(). To get the array exactly like in your question:
$array = array($controller, $method, $parameters);
// Array
// (
// [0] => controller
// [1] => method
// [2] => Array
// (
// [0] => para1
// [1] => para2
// [2] => para3
// )
// )

Answer 4

An alterate way of thinking about this is to actually parse your route to determine the controller and then pass the remaining route components off to the controller to determine what to do.
$url = '/controller/method/para1/para2/para3/';
$route_parts = explode('/', $url, '/')); // we don't need leading and trailing forward slashes
$controller_str = array_shift($route_parts);
$method_str = array_shift($route_parts);
// instantiate controller object be some means (a factory pattern shown here for demo purposes)
$controller = controllerFactory::getInstance($controller_str);
// set method on controller
$controller->setMethod($method_str);
// pass parameters to controller
$controller->setParams($route_parts);
// do whatever with controller
$controller->execute();