Need to add second line and third delimiter on php explode - php

Question

This is tailing off my other question which was successfully answered: stackoverflow.com/questions/8597929/need-to-create-li-with-list-of-different-links-using-php-explode-method
so now I have this:
<?php
$separator1 = "\n";
$separator2 = ":";
$textarea = get_custom_field('my_custom_output');
$array = explode($separator1,$textarea);
$output = ''; // initialize the variable
foreach ($array as $item) {
list($item_text, $item_links) = explode($separator2, trim($item));
$output .= '<li class="link-class"><a title="' . $item_text . '" href="http://mywebsite.com/' . $item_links . '">' . $item_text . '</a></li>';
}
?>
<ul>
<?php print $output; ?>
</ul>
and that, using the following in a textarea which is defined to "my_custom_output":
text1:text1-page-url
text2:new-text2-page
text3:different-page-text3
and the result is
text1
text2
text3
which are successfully linked and styled. (i didnt make them links because stackoverflow doesn't let me post more than two links because i only have 3 rep).
So my next and final desired task is to do this:
text1
description 1
text2
description 2
text3
description 3
where the text1 etc are linked like before but the descriptions are not linked.
So I will do my best, right here in stackoverflow, to try it. However, I expect I will need some help. Let's go:
<?php
$separator1 = "\n";
$separator2 = ":";
$separator3 = ";";
$textarea = get_custom_field('my_custom_output');
$array = explode($separator1,$textarea);
$output = ''; // initialize the variable
foreach ($array as $item) {
list($item_text, $item_links) = explode($separator2, trim($item));
$output .= '<li class="link-class"><a title="' . $item_text . '" href="http://mywebsite.com/' . $item_links . '">' . $item_text . '</a><br /><span class="desc-class">' . $item_desc . '</span></li>';
}
?>
<ul>
<?php print $output; ?>
</ul>
and to use the following in the textarea which is is defined to "my_custom_output":
text1:text1-page-url;Text1 Description
text2:new-text2-page;Description For Text2
text3:different-page-text3;A Text3 Description
and I need the output to be:
text1
Text1 Description
text2
Description For Text2
..etc
I don't know if semicolon will work, but I can't use a space (\s) because there are spaces in the description. I am open to suggestions.
====================================================
MY NEWEST TRY:
<?php
$separator1 = "\n";
$separator2 = ":";
$separator3 = ";";
$textarea = get_custom_field('my_custom_output');
$array = explode($separator1,$textarea);
$output = ''; // initialize the variable
foreach ($array as $item) {
$itemarray = explode($separator2, trim($item));
$item_text = $itemarray[0];
list($item_links, $item_desc) = explode($separator3,$itemarray[1]);
$output .= '<li class="link-class"><a title="' . $item_text . '" href="http://mywebsite.com/' . $item_links . '">' . $item_text . '</a><br /><span class="desc-class">' . $item_desc . '</span></li>';
}
?>
<ul>
<?php print $output; ?>
</ul>
IT WORKS!!! =D

Answer 1

Not sure if I understand this well enough (I'm not sure what get_custom_field() gets you - can't find that as a regular PHP function), but when you explode an item that has multiple instances of the delimiter, you'll get multiple arrays.
So:
$textarea = "text1:text1-page-url;Text1 Description";
$data = explode(':',$textarea);
// at this point $data[0] will contain "text1", while $data[1] contains text1-page-url;Text1 Description"
$descarray = explode(';',$data[1]);
// then $descarray[0] contains "text1-page-url" and $descarray[1] contains "Text1 Description" so you can echo this out however you like.
To work with your code..
Assume each $item is each row at this point, like this:
$item = "text1:text1-page-url;Text1 Description";
Then this will do the trick:
foreach ($array as $item) {
$itemarray = explode($separator2, trim($item));
$item_text = $itemarray[0];
list($item_links, $item_desc) = explode(';',$itemarray[1]);
$output .= '<li class="link-class"><a title="' . $item_text . '" href="http://mywebsite.com/' . $item_links . '">' . $item_text . '</a><br /><span class="desc-class">' . $item_desc . '</span></li>';
}

Answer 2

I'd slightly optimize the algorithm as there is no need for second explode(). Just separate substrings within one row with the same separators (and don't forget to escape that separator inside all your data):
<?php
$row_separator = "\n";
$line_separator = ":";
$textarea = get_custom_field('my_custom_output');
$array = explode($row_separator, $textarea);
$output = ''; // initialize the variable
foreach ($array as $item) {
list($item_text, $item_links, $item_desc) = explode($line_separator, trim($item));
$output .= '<li class="link-class"><a title="' . $item_text . '" href="http://mywebsite.com/' . $item_links . '">' . $item_text . '</a><br /><span class="desc-class">' . $item_desc . '</span></li>';
}
?>
<ul>
<?php print $output; ?>
</ul>
And here is the data format I suggest to use (separate all fields by :)
text1:text1-page-url:Text1 Description
text2:new-text2-page:Description For Text2
text3:different-page-text3:A Text3 Description