CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpstringpreg-matchsubstring
Fabian Buentello
Fabian Buentello

Reputation: 532

get substring between 2 characters in php

Im using a mentioning system like on twitter and instagram where you simply put @johndoe what im trying to do is be able to strip down to the name in-between "@" and these characters ?,,,],:,(space)

as an example heres my string: hey @johnDoe check out this event, be sure to bring @janeDoe:,@johnnyappleSeed?, @johnCitizen] , and @fredNerk

how can i get an array of janeDoe,johnnyappleSeed,johnCitizen,fredNerk without the characters ?,,,],: attached to them.

i know i have to use a variation of preg_match but i dont have a strong understanding of it.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 181

Answers (4)

Toto
Toto

Reputation: 91373

How about:

$str = 'hey @johnDoe check out this event, be sure to bring @janeDoe:,@johnnyappleSeed?, @johnCitizen] , and @fredNerk';
preg_match_all('/@(.*?)(?:[?, \]: ]|$)/', $str, $m);
print_r($m);

output:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => @johnDoe
            [1] => @janeDoe:
            [2] => @johnnyappleSeed?
            [3] => @johnCitizen]
            [4] => @fredNerk
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => johnDoe
            [1] => janeDoe
            [2] => johnnyappleSeed
            [3] => johnCitizen
            [4] => fredNerk
        )

)

explanation:

The regular expression:

(?-imsx:@(.*?)(?:[?, \]: ]|$))

matches as follows:

NODE                     EXPLANATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(?-imsx:                 group, but do not capture (case-sensitive)
                         (with ^ and $ matching normally) (with . not
                         matching \n) (matching whitespace and #
                         normally):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  @                        '@'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  (                        group and capture to \1:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    .*?                      any character except \n (0 or more times
                             (matching the least amount possible))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  )                        end of \1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  (?:                      group, but do not capture:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    [?, \]: ]                any character of: '?', ',', ' ', '\]',
                             ':', ' '
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   |                        OR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    $                        before an optional \n, and the end of
                             the string
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  )                        end of grouping
----------------------------------------------------------------------
)                        end of grouping
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Upvotes: 0

Ben Miller
Ben Miller

Reputation: 21

$check_hash = preg_match_all ("/@[a-zA-Z0-9]*/g", $string_to_match_against, $matches);

You could then do somthing like 

foreach ($matches as $images){
  echo $images."<br />";
}

UPDATE: Just realized you were looking to remove the invalid characters. Updated script should do it.

Upvotes: 0

M.Svrcek
M.Svrcek

Reputation: 5635

preg_match_all("/\@(.*?)\s/", $string, $result_array);

Upvotes: 1

Cobra_Fast
Cobra_Fast

Reputation: 16061

This is what you've asked for: /\@(.*?)\s/
This is what you really want: /\b\@(.*?)\b/

Put either one into preg_match_all() and evaluate the results array.

Upvotes: 1

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