CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpregexnewline
user1763032
user1763032

Reputation: 427

preg_match() not matching start of line after splitting nl2br() string by <br />

I have the following code:

$data = "Normal text
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspcode
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspcode
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspcode
Normal text";
$data = nl2br($data);
$data= explode('<br />', $data );
foreach ($data as $value) {
    if (preg_match('/^&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp/', $value)) {
        echo 'code<br />';
    } else {
        echo 'Not code<br />';
    }
}

I want to check if each of the lines starts with 4 spaces and if it does I want to echo as 'Code' and if it doesn't I want to echo as 'Not code'. But I am getting the output as 'Not code' though the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines start with four spaces. I cannot figure out what I have done wrong.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 3710

Answers (3)

Puggan Se
Puggan Se

Reputation: 5846

got it working added a trim() to get rid of the newline in front of the string

nl2br replace \n with <br />\n (or <br />\r\n), so when spliting on <br /> the \n is left as the first char

<?php
        $data = "Normal text
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspcode
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspcode
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspcode
Normal text";

        $data = nl2br($data);

        $data= explode('<br />', $data );

        foreach($data as $value)
        {
                if(preg_match('/^&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp/', trim($value)))
                {
                        echo 'code';
                }
                else
                {
                        echo 'Not code';
                }
                echo '<br />';
        }
?>

Upvotes: 1

MightyPork
MightyPork

Reputation: 18861

You could also use "startsWith" as defined here...

https://stackoverflow.com/a/834355/2180189

...instead of the regexp match. That is, if the spaces are always at the beginning

Upvotes: 0

Niet the Dark Absol
Niet the Dark Absol

Reputation: 324620

nl2br doesn't generate <br /> unless you tell it to. Your explode logic is wrong.

Instead, try this:

$data = "Normal text.......";
foreach(explode("\n",$data) as $line) {
    // your existing foreach content code here
}

Upvotes: 2

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