Turn string into multidimensional array using regex - php

Question

I would like to turn the following string into an array:
prijs=0,209&orderby=price&order=undefined&posts_per_page=undefined
INTO
array(
[prijs] => Array
(
[0] => 0
[1] => 209
)
[orderby] => Array
(
[0] => price
)
[order] => Array
(
[0] => undefined
)
[posts_per_page] => Array
(
[0] => undefined
)
)
Something like that. Is that possible?
Now I'm using some foreach loops, but that's not so fast and ideal like a RegEx.
It's a script which needs to load as fast as possible, so every bit of improvement in the code may help.
The amount of arrays can be variable. But it will always be 2 levels deep, like above. And just one main array.

Answer 1

You don't need REGEX for this. The string you have shown looks like a URL query string, in which case $_GET will already hold the values you need:-
var_dump($_GET);
Should give you:-
array (size=4)
'prijs' => string '0,209' (length=5)
'orderby' => string 'price' (length=5)
'order' => string 'undefined' (length=9)
'posts_per_page' => string 'undefined' (length=9)
Otherwise you can use parse_string().
$values = array();
parse_str('prijs=0,209&orderby=price&order=undefined&posts_per_page=undefined', $values);
var_dump($values);
Output:
array (size=4)
'prijs' => string '0,209' (length=5)
'orderby' => string 'price' (length=5)
'order' => string 'undefined' (length=9)
'posts_per_page' => string 'undefined' (length=9)

Answer 2

Looks like you're in need of array_walk as it should be faster than a foreach even if it does pretty much the same thing it does it at a lower level.
as vascowhite suggested you can use $_GET if you have it or parse_str() to get an initial array, after that:
array_walk($array, function(&$n) {
$n = explode(',', $n);
});
Live code: http://3v4l.org/YfuKs
Results in exactly what you want (always having arrays instead of CSV strings):
Array
(
[prijs] => Array
(
[0] => 0
[1] => 209
)
[orderby] => Array
(
[0] => price
)
[order] => Array
(
[0] => undefined
)
[posts_per_page] => Array
(
[0] => undefined
)
)
PS: instead of explode() you can use preg_split('/,/', $n) since you mentioned RegEx and see which one is faster for you

Answer 3

$str = 'prijs=0,209&orderby=price&order=undefined&posts_per_page=undefined';
$array = preg_split('/[&]/' , $str);
foreach ($array as $a)
{
$a = preg_split('/[=]/' , $a);
$a[1] = preg_split('/[,]/' , $a[1]);
}
var_dump($array);

Answer 4

Well, you can use something like this:
<?php
parse_str("prijs=0,209&orderby=price&order=undefined&posts_per_page=undefined",$myArray);
$myArray['prijs'] = explode(",", $myArray['prijs']);
$myArray['orderby'] = explode(",", $myArray['orderby']);
$myArray['order'] = explode(",", $myArray['order']);
$myArray['posts_per_page'] = explode(",", $myArray['posts_per_page']);
print_r($myArray);
?>

Answer 5

function urlSplitter($input)
{
$step1Array = explode('&', $input);
$result = array();
foreach($step1Array as $element)
{
$parts = explode("=", $element);
$result[$parts[0]] = explode(",", $parts[1]);
}
return $result;
}
$result = urlSplitter("prijs=0,209&orderby=price&order=undefined&posts_per_page=undefined");
var_dump($result);