CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpregex
stack
stack

Reputation: 10228

How to remove single character before dash in the string?

I have some string with this style:

$var = "a - it is a string";       // I want this output: 'it is a string'
$var = "m - it is second string";  // I want this output: 'it is second string'

So here is my pattern:

[single character in the first of string]<space>-<space>{anything} // I want just {anything}

How can I do that in PHP REGEX?

Here is my try (altought does not work and I'm sure it is really far of what I want)

preg_replace("/^\w\s+-\s+/","",$str);

Edit:

It should be noted that I use Persian characters in reality. Also here is a example:

$var = 'ی - این یک متن تست است';

Upvotes: 1

Views: 153

Answers (3)

Kasravnd
Kasravnd

Reputation: 107297

First of all you need to change the /w to \w.Secondly for matching a single character you can use a character class (if you just want to match alphabetical character) and for match the rest of string you can use modifier . followed by * :

preg_replace("/^[a-z]\s+-\s+.*/","",$str);

Also note that since you used the anchor ^ to specify the start of the string, if you are dealing with a multi line string you need to use flag m and g for match global.

preg_replace("/^[a-z]\s+-\s+.*/m","",$str);

See demo https://regex101.com/r/gT9wB8/1

Reed more about regex https://www.regular-expressions.info

If you are dealing with unicode strings you can use flag u which makes your regex engine to match the unicode characters.

also note that you need to change range of your characters or use dot . which match just one character (but all the characters):

'/^.\s+-\s+.*/mu'

Or:

'/^[\u0622-\u06cc]\s+-\s+.*/mu'

Demo https://regex101.com/r/gT9wB8/2

Upvotes: 1

anubhava
anubhava

Reputation: 785276

You can use this:

$var = 'ی - این یک متن تست است';

echo preg_replace('/^\p{L}\h+-\h+/u', '', $var);
//=> این یک متن تست است

Regex used is:

^\p{L}  # match unicode letter at start
\h+     # match 1 or more horizontal space
-       # match 1 hyphen
\h+     # match 1 or more horizontal space

Important is use of /u modifier for unicode support in this regex.

Upvotes: 1

Pedro Lobito
Pedro Lobito

Reputation: 98921

preg_replace('/^.\s-\s/', '', $var);

Live PHP Demo

http://ideone.com/fvIKBE

Regex Explanation

^.\s-\s

Assert position at the beginning of a line «^»
Match any single character that is NOT a line break character «.»
Match a single character that is a “whitespace character” «\s»
Match the character “-” literally «-»
Match a single character that is a “whitespace character” «\s»

Upvotes: 2

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