How can I remove words from an array that are after a new line?

Question

I want to get the strings after each : and before each \n from the following:

När:Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag\nVar:Främst norra Jämtland\nIntensitet:Väst ca 21 m/s\nKommentar:-

Source (alert[4]->info->description as of this question were asked): https://opendata-download-warnings.smhi.se/api/version/2/alerts.json

I've tried with explode() but after that, I am clueless of how I can remove \nVar and the others from the arrays.

array(5) {
  [0]=>
  string(4) "När"
  [1]=>
  string(45) "Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag
Var"
  [2]=>
  string(34) "Främst norra Jämtland
Intensitet"
  [3]=>
  string(25) "Väst ca 21 m/s
Kommentar"
  [4]=>
  string(1) "-"
}

Here's how I want it to look like:

array(5) {
  [0]=>
  string(45) "Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag"
  [1]=>
  string(34) "Främst norra Jämtland"
  [2]=>
  string(25) "Väst ca 21 m/s"
  [3]=>
  string(1) "-"
}

Here's how I tried so far:

$content = file_get_contents('https://opendata-download-warnings.smhi.se/api/version/2/alerts.json');
$content = json_decode($content);

foreach($content->alert AS $alert) {
    if($alert->info->area->areaDesc == '013') {
        $desc = explode(':', $alert->info->description);
        $descc = explode("\n", $desc);    # Don't know how to explode by \n since it returns an error; explode() expects parameter 2 to be string
        echo '<pre>'; var_dump($desc); echo '</pre>';
    }
}

Answer 1

You can use regex to capture what is between : and \n.

$text = "När:Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag\nVar:Främst norra Jämtland\nIntensitet:Väst ca 21 m/s\nKommentar:-";
preg_match_all("/\w+:(.*?)\\n/", $text, $match);
print_r($match);

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => r:Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag

            [1] => Var:Främst norra Jämtland

            [2] => Intensitet:Väst ca 21 m/s

        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag
            [1] => Främst norra Jämtland
            [2] => Väst ca 21 m/s
        )

)

https://3v4l.org/rpu5E

---

Sadly my regex mojo is not with me today...
So I had to switch to good old explode and array_functions.
I multiexplode the array on : and \n then I intersect the array on the uneven keys using range() to get the keys needed.

$text = "När:Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag\nVar:Främst norra Jämtland\nIntensitet:Väst ca 21 m/s\nKommentar:Sydväst 14-17 m/s. Avtagande söndag morgon.";

$exploded = multiexplode(array("\n",":"), $text);
if(count($exploded) > 2){
    $range = array_flip(range(1,count($exploded),2));
}else{
    $range = ["1" => 1];
}

$result = array_intersect_key($exploded, $range);
print_r($result);

Output:

Array
(
    [1] => Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag
    [3] => Främst norra Jämtland
    [5] => Väst ca 21 m/s
    [7] => -
)

If you need 0 indexed array use array_values to reset the keys.
https://3v4l.org/tbgLM

Answer 2

You can use this function

    <?php
function getContents($str, $startDelimiter, $endDelimiter) {
  $contents = array();
  $startDelimiterLength = strlen($startDelimiter);
  $endDelimiterLength = strlen($endDelimiter);
  $startFrom = $contentStart = $contentEnd = 0;
  while (false !== ($contentStart = strpos($str, $startDelimiter, $startFrom))) {
    $contentStart += $startDelimiterLength;
    $contentEnd = strpos($str, $endDelimiter, $contentStart);
    if (false === $contentEnd) {
      break;
    }
    $contents[] = substr($str, $contentStart, $contentEnd - $contentStart);
    $startFrom = $contentEnd + $endDelimiterLength;
  }

  return $contents;
}

$sample = 'När:Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag\nVar:Främst norra Jämtland\nIntensitet:Väst ca 21 m/s\nKommentar:-';
print_r( getContents($sample, ':', '\n') );
 ?>

RESULT

Array
 (
   [0] => Sent lördag kväll och natt till söndag
   [1] => Främst norra Jämtland
   [2] => Väst ca 21 m/s
 )