PHP explode terms in to array, retain quoted text as single array item

Question

I have the following string from a form...

Opera "adds cross-platform hardware" "kicks butt" -hippies

In general I've simply been using the following...

$p0 = explode(' ',$string);

However now I want to maintain any and all quote operators as a single array item instead of having them create individual items like "adds, cross-platform and hardware".

I want to have that string end up creating an array like this...

Array
(
    [0] => 'Opera',
    [1] => 'adds cross-platform hardware',
    [2] => 'kicks butt',
    [3] => '-hippies'
)

I generally prefer to not use regex for most things whenever possible.

possible duplicate of An explode() function that ignores characters inside quotes? — Bergi
– Bergi, Commented Sep 10, 2013 at 21:41

Menztrual · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-27 04:43:24Z

5

You could use a preg_match_all(...):

$text = 'Opera "adds cross-platform hardware" "kicks butt" -hippies';
preg_match_all('/"(?:\\\\.|[^\\\\"])*"|\S+/', $text, $matches);
print_r($matches);

answered Aug 27, 2012 at 4:43

Menztrual

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3 Comments

John Over a year ago

I forgot about regex...should have stated that I try to avoid regex whenever possible to avoid performance hits. If I can't find an acceptable way to do this and your answer works I'll accept it though since I did not initially state I would prefer a non-regex answer. If you update your answer to include a non-regex way comment and I'll try that out too. Thanks!

Francis Avila Over a year ago

@John, a non-regex solution is not necessarily faster. Don't micro-optimize. Code for clarity, wait for a performance problem, then profile and optimize as needed.

John Over a year ago

@FrancisAvila With server code I care a lot about performance and if I get an answer I want to make sure everyone can not only learn from it though also get the past answer from it. Regex has it's place though like other things in programming some people grow overly dependent on it. I'll go over the answers and try to figure out what works the fastest.

gurudeb · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-08 12:10:43Z

3

If you're using PHP >= 5.3, you can use str_getcsv

print_r(str_getcsv('Opera "adds cross-platform hardware" "kicks butt" -hippies'," "));

prints

Array
(
    [0] => Opera
    [1] => adds cross-platform hardware
    [2] => kicks butt
    [3] => -hippies
)

edited Dec 8, 2012 at 12:10

gurudeb

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answered Aug 27, 2012 at 5:04

Passerby

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Comments

WatsMyName · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-27 04:53:14Z

0

try this without using regex, a rough code

<?
$string='Opera "adds cross-platform hardware" "kicks butt" -hippies';
$g=explodeMe($string);
echo "<pre>";
print_r($g);
echo "</pre>";

function explodeMe($string){
    $k=explode('"',$string);
    foreach ($k as $key => $link)
    {
        if ($k[$key] == ' ')
        {
            unset($k[$key]);
        }
    }
    return array_values($k);
}
?>

answered Aug 27, 2012 at 4:53

WatsMyName

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

0

While I'm looking for the fastest approach I thought I would add my own approach to the challange.

<?php
$q = 'Opera "adds cross-platform hardware" "kicks butt" -hippies';
echo '<div>'.$q.'</div>';
$p0 = explode(' ',$q);
echo '<div><pre>';print_r($p0);echo '</pre></div>';

$open = false;
$terms = array();
foreach ($p0 as $key)
{
 if ($open==false)
 {
  if (substr($key,0,1)=='"')
  {
   $open = $key;
  }
  else {array_push($terms,$key);}
 }
 else if (substr($key,strlen($key) - 1,strlen($key))=='"')
 {
  $open = $open.' '.$key;
  array_push($terms,$open);
  $open = false;
 }
 else
 {
  $open = $open.' '.$key;
 }
}

echo '<div><pre>';print_r($terms);echo '</pre></div>';

echo '<div><pre>';print_r($open);echo '</pre></div>';
?>

Outputs the following...

Opera "adds cross-platform hardware" "kicks butt" -hippies

//Initial explode by spaces...

Array (
[0] => Opera
[1] => "adds
[2] => cross-platform
[3] => hardware"
[4] => "kicks
[5] => butt"
[6] => -hippies
)

//Final results...

Array (
[0] => Opera
[1] => "adds cross-platform hardware"
[2] => "kicks butt"
[3] => -hippies
)

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Aug 27, 2012 at 5:09

John

1

2 Comments

Passerby Over a year ago

Are you using PHP<5.3? Otherwise a built-in functions should be fast enough for you...

John Over a year ago

No, not (currently) on my live (shared) server.

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