CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpregex
tokis
tokis

Reputation: 125

Regex get first n characters ignoring space

I have found a solution on how to cut a text by using regex.

^(?=((?:.*?\S){40})) // GET FIRST 40 CHARACTERS (IGNORING SPACES)

Fron: Extract n-character substring while ignoring spaces

The problem is if I entered this: asdgfhtjshhhhhhhhhasdasdasdass asd, nothing has been extracted.

Here is the regex101 link: https://regex101.com/r/fM9lY3/5#javascript

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1220

Answers (3)

hek2mgl
hek2mgl

Reputation: 158160

You can simply use the following regex:

^(\s*\S){1,40}

You don't need a lookahead assertion, you can simply put zero or more space characters and a non-space character into a capturing group. Then trailing quantifier will ensure it occurs up to 40 times. The key here is the optional space.

Try it: https://regex101.com/r/fM9lY3/40

Upvotes: 1

Déjà vu
Déjà vu

Reputation: 28850

This one makes just a small usage of regex, but it works 

$x = "asdgfhtjshhhhhhhhhasdasdasdass asd";

$result = substr(implode("", preg_split('/\s+/', $x)), 0, 40);

Upvotes: 0

Gus
Gus

Reputation: 954

This is because {40} means exactly 40, and the text you inputted has less than 40 characters. Try with {1,40} (which means from 1 to 40):

^(?=((?:.*?\S){1,40}))

Upvotes: 0

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