Regex Preg_match_all match all pattern - php

Here is my concern,
I have a string and I need to extract chraracters two by two.
$str = "abcdef" should return array('ab', 'bc', 'cd', 'de', 'ef'). I want to use preg_match_all instead of loops. Here is the pattern I am using.
$str = "abcdef";
preg_match_all('/[\w]{2}/', $str);
The thing is, it returns Array('ab', 'cd', 'ef'). It misses 'bc' and 'de'.
I have the same problem if I want to extract a certain number of words
$str = "ab cd ef gh ij";
preg_match_all('/([\w]+ ){2}/', $str); // returns array('ab cd', 'ef gh'), I'm also missing the last part
What am I missing? Or is it simply not possible to do so with preg_match_all?

For the first problem, what you want to do is match overlapping string, and this requires zero-width (not consuming text) look-around to grab the character:
/(?=(\w{2}))/
The regex above will capture the match in the first capturing group.
DEMO
For the second problem, it seems that you also want overlapping string. Using the same trick:
/(?=(\b\w+ \w+\b))/
Note that \b is added to check the boundary of the word. Since the match does not consume text, the next match will be attempted at the next index (which is in the middle of the first word), instead of at the end of the 2nd word. We don't want to capture from middle of a word, so we need the boundary check.
Note that \b's definition is based on \w, so if you ever change the definition of a word, you need to emulate the word boundary with look-ahead and look-behind with the corresponding character set.
DEMO

In case if you need a Non-Regex solution, Try this...
<?php
$str = "abcdef";
$len = strlen($str);
$arr = array();
for($count = 0; $count < ($len - 1); $count++)
{
$arr[] = $str[$count].$str[$count+1];
}
print_r($arr);
?>
See Codepad.

Related

How to get the index of last word with an uppercase letter in PHP

Considering this input string:
"this is a Test String to get the last index of word with an uppercase letter in PHP"
How can I get the position of the last uppercase letter (in this example the position of the first "P" (not the last one "P") of "PHP" word?
I think this regex works. Give it a try.
https://regex101.com/r/KkJeho/1
$pattern = "/.*\s([A-Z])/";
//$pattern = "/.*\s([A-Z])[A-Z]+/"; pattern to match only all caps word
Edit to solve what Wiktor wrote in comments I think you could str_replace all new lines with space as the input string in the regex.
That should make the regex treat it as a single line regex and still give the correct output.
Not tested though.
To find the position of the letter/word:
$str = "this is a Test String to get the last index of word with an uppercase letter in PHP";
$pattern = "/.*\s([A-Z])(\w+)/";
//$pattern = "/.*\s([A-Z])([A-Z]+)/"; pattern to match only all caps word
preg_match($pattern, $str, $match);
$letter = $match[1];
$word = $match[1] . $match[2];
$position = strrpos($str, $match[1].$match[2]);
echo "Letter to find: " . $letter . "\nWord to find: " . $word . "\nPosition of letter: " . $position;
https://3v4l.org/sJilv
If you also want to consider a non-regex version: You can try splitting the string at the whitespace character, iterating the resulting string array backwards and checking if the current string's first character is an upper case character, something like this (you may want to add index/null checks):
<?php
$str = "this is a Test String to get the last index of word with an uppercase letter in PHP";
$explodeStr = explode(" ",$str);
$i = count($explodeStr) - 1;
$characterCount=0;
while($i >= 0) {
$firstChar = $explodeStr[$i][0];
if($firstChar == strtoupper($firstChar)){
echo $explodeStr[$i]. ' at index: ';
$idx = strlen($str)-strlen($explodeStr[$i] -$characterCount);
echo $idx;
break;
}
$characterCount += strlen($explodeStr[i]) +1; //+1 for whitespace
$i--;
}
This prints 80 which is indeed the index of the first P in PHP (including whitespaces).
Andreas' pattern looks pretty solid, but this will find the position faster...
.* \K[A-Z]{2,}
Pattern Demo
Here is the PHP implementation: Demo
$str='this is a Test String to get the last index of word with an uppercase letter in PHP test';
var_export(preg_match('/.* \K[A-Z]{2,}/',$str,$out,PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE)?$out[0][1]:'fail');
// 80
If you want to see a condensed non-regex method, this will work:
Code: Demo
$str='this is a Test String to get the last index of word with an uppercase letter in PHP test';
$allcaps=array_filter(explode(' ',$str),'ctype_upper');
echo "Position = ",strrpos($str,end($allcaps));
Output:
Position = 80
This assumes that there is an all caps word in the input string. If there is a possibility of no all-caps words, then a conditional would sort it out.
Edit, after re-reading the question, I am unsure what exactly makes PHP the targeted substring -- whether it is because it is all caps, or just the last word to start with a capitalized letter.
If just the last word starting with an uppercase letter then this pattern will do: /.* \K[A-Z]/
If the word needs to be all caps, then it is possible that /b word boundaries may be necessary.
Some more samples and explanation from the OP would be useful.
Another edit, you can declare a set of characters to exclude and use just two string functions. I am using a-z and a space with rtrim() then finding the right-most space, and adding 1 to it.
$str='this is a Test String to get the last index of word with an uppercase letter in PHP test';
echo strrpos(rtrim($str,'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz '),' ')+1;
// 80

preg replace would ignore non-letter characters when detecting words

I have an array of words and a string and want to add a hashtag to the words in the string that they have a match inside the array. I use this loop to find and replace the words:
foreach($testArray as $tag){
$str = preg_replace("~\b".$tag."~i","#\$0",$str);
}
Problem: lets say I have the word "is" and "isolate" in my array. I will get ##isolate at the output. this means that the word "isolate" is found once for "is" and once for "isolate". And the pattern ignores the fact that "#isoldated" is not starting with "is" anymore and it starts with "#".
I bring an example BUT this is only an example and I don't want to just solve this one but every other possiblity:
$str = "this is isolated is an example of this and that";
$testArray = array('is','isolated','somethingElse');
Output will be:
this #is ##isolated #is an example of this and that
You may build a regex with an alternation group enclosed with word boundaries on both ends and replace all the matches in one pass:
$str = "this is isolated is an example of this and that";
$testArray = array('is','isolated','somethingElse');
echo preg_replace('~\b(?:' . implode('|', $testArray) . ')\b~i', '#$0', $str);
// => this #is #isolated #is an example of this and that
See the PHP demo.
The regex will look like
~\b(?:is|isolated|somethingElse)\b~
See its online demo.
If you want to make your approach work, you might add a negative lookbehind after \b: "~\b(?<!#)".$tag."~i","#\$0". The lookbehind will fail all matches that are preceded with #. See this PHP demo.
A way to do that is to split your string by words and to build a associative array with your original array of words (to avoid the use of in_array):
$str = "this is isolated is an example of this and that";
$testArray = array('is','isolated','somethingElse');
$hash = array_flip(array_map('strtolower', $testArray));
$parts = preg_split('~\b~', $str);
for ($i=1; $i<count($parts); $i+=2) {
$low = strtolower($parts[$i]);
if (isset($hash[$low])) $parts[$i-1] .= '#';
}
$result = implode('', $parts);
echo $result;
This way, your string is processed only once, whatever the number of words in your array.

Make two simple regex's into one

I am trying to make a regex that will look behind .txt and then behind the "-" and get the first digit .... in the example, it would be a 1.
$record_pattern = '/.txt.+/';
preg_match($record_pattern, $decklist, $record);
print_r($record);
.txt?n=chihoi%20%283-1%29
I want to write this as one expression but can only seem to do it as two. This is the first time working with regex's.
You can use this:
$record_pattern = '/\.txt.+-(\d)/';
Now, the first group contains what you want.
Your regex would be,
\.txt[^-]*-\K\d
You don't need for any groups. It just matches from the .txt and upto the literal -. Because of \K in our regex, it discards the previously matched characters. In our case it discards .txt?n=chihoi%20%283- string. Then it starts matching again the first digit which was just after to -
DEMO
Your PHP code would be,
<?php
$mystring = ".txt?n=chihoi%20%283-1%29";
$regex = '~\.txt[^-]*-\K\d~';
if (preg_match($regex, $mystring, $m)) {
$yourmatch = $m[0];
echo $yourmatch;
}
?> //=> 1

PHP preg_match_all regex

If I have a string like: 10/10/12/12
I'm using:
$string = '10/10/12/12';
preg_match_all('/[0-9]+\/[0-9]+/', $string, $results);
This only seems to match 10/10, and 12/12. I also want to match 10/12. Is it because after the 10/10 is matched that is removed from the picture? So after the first match it'll only match things from /12/12?
If I want to match all 10/10, 10/12, 12/12, what should my regex look like? Thanks.
Edit: I did this
$arr = explode('/', $string);
$count = count($arr) - 1;
$newarr = array();
for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++)
{
$newarr[] = $arr[$i].'/'.$arr[$i+1];
}
I'd advise not using regular expression. Instead you could for example first split on slash using explode. Then iterate over the parts, checking for two consecutive parts which both consist of only digits.
The reason why your regular expression doesn't work is because the match consumes the characters it matches. Searching for the next match starts from just after where the previous match ended.
If you really want to use regular expressions you can use a zero-width match such as a lookahead to avoid consuming the characters, and put a capturing match inside the lookahead.
'#[0-9]+/(?=([0-9]+))#'
See it working online: ideone

Replace after a needle in a string?

I have a string, something like
bbbbabbbbbccccc
Are there any way for me to replace all the letters "b" after the only one letter "a" into "c" without having to split the string, using PHP?
bbbbacccccccccc
odd question.
echo preg_replace('/a(.*)$/e', "'a'.strtr($1, 'b', 'c')", 'bbbabbbbbccccc');
preg_replace matches everything to the right of 'a' with regex. the e modifier in the regex evaluates the replacement string as code. the code in the replacement string uses strtr() to replace 'b's with 'c's.
Here are three options.
First, a split. Yes, I know you want to do it without a split.
$string = 'bbbbabbbbbccccc';
$parts = preg_split('/(a)/', $string, 2, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
// Parts now looks like:
// array('bbb', 'a', 'bbbbcccc');
$parts[2] = str_replace('b', 'c', $parts[2]);
$correct_string = join('', $parts);
Second, a position search and a substring replacement.
$string = 'bbbbabbbbbccccc';
$first_a_index = strpos($string, 'a');
if($first_a_index !== false) {
// Now, grab everything from that first 'a' to the end of the string.
$replaceable = substr($string, $first_a_index);
// Replace it.
$replaced = str_replace('b', 'c', $replaceable );
// Now splice it back in
$string = substr_replace($string, $replaced, $first_a_index);
}
Third, I was going to post a regex, but the one dqhendricks posted is just as good.
These code examples are verbose for clarity, and can be reduced to one-or-two-liners.
$s = 'bbbbabbbbbccccc';
echo preg_replace('/((?:(?!\A)\G|(?<!a)a(?!a))[^b]*)b/', '$1c', $s);
\G matches the position where the previous match ended. On the first match attempt, \G matches the beginning of the string like \A. We don't want that, so we use (?!\A) to prevent it.
(?<!a)a(?!a) matches an a that's neither preceded nor followed by an a. The a is captured in group #1 so we can plug it back into the replacement with $1.
This is a "pure regex" solution, meaning it does the whole job in one call to preg_replace and doesn't rely on embedded code and the /e modifier. It's good to know in case you ever find yourself working within those constraints, but it definitely shouldn't be your first resort.

Categories