regex does not work with mysql_fetch_array - php

Question

How can you perform a search and replace with php on an array returned from mysql_fetch_array()? If I use preg_replace() it will not return a match. Is there something that I'm missing?
This is what I have used without sucess, could anyone pleas take a look and tell me what I'm doing wrong, or possibly a better way to achive this:
mysql_connect(DATABASE_HOST, DATABASE_USERNAME, DATABASE_PASSWORD)
or die("<p>Error connecting to database: " . mysql_error() . "</p>");
mysql_select_db(DATABASE_NAME)
or die("<p>Error selecting the database " . DATABASE_NAME . mysql_error() . "</p>");
$sql = "SELECT product_id,description FROM oc_product_description WHERE product_id >= 97 AND product_id <= 100";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
$pattern = '/^.*\b([0-9]{6}\s\D\d|[0-9]{6}\s\D[0-9]{2}|[0-9]{7}\s\D[0-9]{2})\b.*$/';
$replace = '$1';
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$item[] = $row['description'];
}
foreach($item as $items)
{
echo preg_replace($pattern, $replace, $items) . '<br>';
echo '<br>';
}
all that this will do is return the same as it would without the preg_replace(). Now I know the code works because if I output a print_r($item) and copy the results into an array it works just fine. Am i doing something wrong or does preg_replace() just not work with arrays returned from mysql_fetch_assoc or mysql_fetch_array? I could put my example up where i copy the results into an array but dont want to waste space. Here is an example of an item returned from the database and the string I'm trying to match with regex. I need everything removed but the match.
One item returned from $row['description']:
1997 Suzuki VZ800 Marauder, Engine # 5506-111789, Kick stand and spring. Chrome on end is starting to chip. 0121103 S19 <img src = ">http://www.roofis27.com/motorcycle/13_01_21/103.JPG">
Here is what the regex retrurns: 0121103 S19
So therefore I have over 20,000 entry's in a database with descriptions like these and need these codes like the example above removed from them so I can INSERT them into another table column that matches the product_id relational to the descriptions product_id. I am not the best with SQL, but the <img> tag is always after the code so maybe there is a way to do it with SQL that I'm not aware of? My main concern at this point is why preg_replace() doesn't work with an array returned from mysql_fetch_array(), but works fine on any other arrays ( associative, multidimensional or not). Is there something about the values returned from a database that prevent me from being able to do this? Anything would be greatly appreciated, I'm really stuck on this!

Answer 1

After thinking about what jerry had to say(in the comment above) I came up with this resolution, apparently there are characters in the return from mysql_fetch_array() that are invisible and that's why the regexp does not work. I got way better results using preg_match() as follows:
$sql = 'SELECT product_id,description FROM oc_product_description';
$sql1 = 'UPDATE db_product SET model = ';
$sql2 = 'WHERE product_id = ';
$pattern = '([0-9]{6}\s\D[0-9]{2}|[0-9]{6}\s\D\d|[0-9]{7}\s\D[0-9]{2})';
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$data[] = $row['description'];
foreach($data as $datas)
{
preg_match($pattern, $datas, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE);
}
foreach($matches as $match)
{
$Q1 = $sql1 . '"'. $match[0] . '"' . ' ';
}
$Q2 = $sql2 . $row['product_id'] .';';
$query = $Q1 . $Q2;
mysql_query($query);
echo 'Product ID' . $row['product_id'] . ': ';
printf("Records updated: %d\n", mysql_affected_rows());
echo '<br>';
}
Yes, I will start using PDO for database cons and querys, did some research on it and look pretty cool. It's just I'm new to php and still in school so I have so much learning going on I hate having to change ( better get used to it though, HUH?) Thank you jerry :)