CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpstringparsingvariables
Mike
Mike

Reputation: 1

PHP How to parse a string and conver to variables

Using PHP, I am looking to parse a string and convert it into variables. Specifically, the string will be a file name, and I'm looking to break the file name into variables. Files are nature photos, and have a uniform format:

species_name-date-locationcode-city

All files names have this exact format, and the "-" is the delimiter. (I can make it whatever if necessary)

an example of the file name is common_daisy-20130731-ABCD-Dallas

I want to break it up into variables for $speciesname, $date, $locationcode, $city.

Any idea on how this can be done? I have seen functions for parsing strings, but they usually take the form of having the name of the variable in the string, (For example "species=daisy&date=20130731&location=ABCD&city=Dallas") which I don't have, and cannot make my file names match that. If I wanted to use a string replace to change the delimiters to variables= I would have to use 4 different delimiters in the filename and that wont work for me.

Thanks for anyone who tries to help me with this issue.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 132

Answers (5)

Mike Brant
Mike Brant

Reputation: 71384

You can explode the string on delimiter and then assign to variables

$filename = 'species_name-date-locationcode-city';
$array = explode('-', $filename);
$speciesname = $array[0];
$date = $array[1];
$locationcode = $array[2];
$city = $array[3];

Upvotes: 1

Guillaume Lhz
Guillaume Lhz

Reputation: 904

<?php
$myvar = 'common_daisy-20130731-ABCD-Dallas';
$tab = explode ('-', $myvar);
$speciesname = $tab[0];
$date = $tab[1];
$locationcode = $tab[2];
$city = $tab[3];
?>

Upvotes: 1

doitlikejustin
doitlikejustin

Reputation: 6353

Use PHP explode

$pieces = explode('-', 'species_name-date-locationcode-city');
$name = $pieces[0];
$data = $pieces[1];
$code = $pieces[2];
$city = $pieces[3];

Upvotes: 1

Ioannis Lalopoulos
Ioannis Lalopoulos

Reputation: 1511

list($speciesname, $date, $locationcode, $city) = explode('-', $filename);

Upvotes: 1

Shih-Min Lee
Shih-Min Lee

Reputation: 9710

http://php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php

$pieces = explode("-", $description);

Upvotes: 0

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