PHP Url string to array

Question

I'm trying to find out if there's any function that would split a string like:

keyword=flower|type=outdoors|colour=red

to array:

array('keyword' => 'flower', 'type' => 'outdoors', 'colour' => 'red')

At the moment I built a custom function, which uses explode to first split elements with the separator | and then each of those with assignment symbol =, but is there perhaps a native function which would do it out of the box by specifying the string separator?

The function I've written looks like this:

public static function splitStringToArray(
    $string = null,
    $itemDivider = '|',
    $keyValueDivider = '='
) {

    if (empty($string)) {

        return array();

    }

    $items = explode($itemDivider, $string);

    if (empty($items)) {

        return array();

    }

    $out = array();

    foreach($items as $item) {

        $itemArray = explode($keyValueDivider, $item);

        if (
            count($itemArray) > 1 &&
            !empty($itemArray[1])
        ) {

            $out[$itemArray[0]] = $itemArray[1];

        }

    }

    return $out;

}

There isn't. However, you can do it in a one liner using the parse_str function (and changing |'s to &'s): parse_str(str_replace('|', '&', $string), $array); — h2ooooooo
– h2ooooooo, Commented Aug 20, 2014 at 8:31
Fantastic - can you post it as an answer so that I can mark it as answered? — Spencer Mark
– Spencer Mark, Commented Aug 20, 2014 at 8:34

Hanky Panky · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-20 08:57:59Z

2

$string = "keyword=flower|type=outdoors|colour=red";
$string = str_replace('|', '&', $string);
parse_str($string, $values);
$values=array_filter($values);   // Remove empty pairs as per your comment
print_r($values);

Output

Array
(
    [keyword] => flower
    [type] => outdoors
    [colour] => red
)

Fiddle

edited Aug 20, 2014 at 8:57

answered Aug 20, 2014 at 8:35

Hanky Panky

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10 Comments

Spencer Mark Over a year ago

Thanks - I'll accept this answer, which is what @h2ooooooo has also suggested earlier in the shorter format.

Hanky Panky Over a year ago

Oops I was so interested in writing an answer I didn't look at the comment or I wouldn't have answered since you had your solution already.

h2ooooooo Over a year ago

@SpencerMark No worries - this answer is more descriptive and has a demo as well as output. Usually when I have less time I just post a quick comment rather than an answer. :)

Spencer Mark Over a year ago

Thanks guys - appreciate your quick response.

Hanky Panky Over a year ago

If you want to remove all the empty elements from the final array you can just add this line at the end. $values=array_filter($values);

|

Kevin Labécot · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-20 08:35:21Z

0

Use regexp to solve this problem.

([^=]+)\=([^\|]+)

http://regex101.com/r/eQ9tW8/1

answered Aug 20, 2014 at 8:35

Kevin Labécot

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1 Comment

Lix Over a year ago

Regex seems a little over-kill for this situation don't you think?

Lix · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-20 08:35:32Z

0

The issue is that your chosen format of representing variables in a string is non-standard. If you are able to change the | delimiter to a & character you would have (what looks like) a query string from a URL - and you'll be able to parse that easily:

$string = "keyword=flower&type=outdoors&colour=red";
parse_str( $string, $arr );
var_dump( $arr );

// array(3) { ["keyword"]=> string(6) "flower" ["type"]=> string(8) "outdoors" ["colour"]=> string(3) "red" }

I would recommend changing the delimiter at the source instead of manually replacing it with replace() or something similar (if possible).

answered Aug 20, 2014 at 8:35

Lix

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