Create Multi dimension recursive regex with php pairs / array from preg_match_all

Question

I have the following string which I need to be bale to extract the parameters from in order to process the next part of the code. I have manage to do this by doing multiple preg_match_all, but it is not very efficient and/or dynamic.

Example strings (the source might contain multiples): <==OBJECTSTART==>type=>sqltable,objectid=>4000001,options=>1|5|2<==OBJECTEND==>

<==OBJECTSTART==>type=>sqltable,objectid=>4000002,options=>3|8|5<==OBJECTEND==>

What I have so far I have go to the following for a regex expression:

/<==OBJECTSTART==>((.?),)(.?)<==OBJECTEND==>/

This gives me the information before the first comma but I have tried the usual + and * to give me a repeat iteration but no luck.

ideally I am looking for an array of objects that looks like the following

[0]=>

[type]=sqltable
[objected]=4000001
[options]=1|5|2

[1]=>

[type]=sqltable
[objected]=4000002
[options]=3|8|5

thanks in advance!

A solution using regular expressions to parse a string formatted as yours is typically error-prone and not very maintainable. It's often easier to manually parse the string with splits and such. That said, /([^,=>]+)=>([^,<=>]+)/g appears to match the keys and corresponding values correctly. If you use it one line at a time, you should be able to build up your array. — Bryan
– Bryan, Commented Mar 1, 2015 at 23:01

mhall · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-01 23:01:54Z

1

This may not be the most elegant way of parsing this, but I think it gets the job done:

$str = <<<EOS
<==OBJECTSTART==>type=>sqltable,objectid=>4000001,options=>1|5|2<==OBJECTEND==>
<==OBJECTSTART==>type=>sqltable,objectid=>4000002,options=>3|8|5<==OBJECTEND==>
EOS;

foreach (explode(PHP_EOL, $str) as $line) {
    $line = preg_replace('/<==OBJECTSTART==>(.*)<==OBJECTEND==>/', '\1', $line);
    $pairs = explode(',', $line);

    $data = array();
    foreach ($pairs as $pair) {
        list ($key, $value) = explode('=>', $pair);
        $data[$key] = $value;
    }
    $result[] = $data;
}
print_r($result);

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [type] => sqltable
            [objectid] => 4000001
            [options] => 1|5|2
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [type] => sqltable
            [objectid] => 4000002
            [options] => 3|8|5
        )

)

answered Mar 1, 2015 at 23:01

mhall

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1 Comment

Imperimus Over a year ago

Thanks this seem to do the trick and slightly modified for my needs I have created a reusable function that we get the object details process the object and replace the original place holder(s) with the result(s) before outputting the new file.

Gaël Barbin · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-01 23:08:31Z

1

First extract that is between <==OBJECTSTART==> and <==OBJECTEND==>

  $str= substr($str, strlen("<==OBJECTSTART==>"), -1 * strlen("<==OBJECTEND==>"));

Then get all pairs attribute/value

  preg_match_all("#([^\=]*)\=>([^\,<]*)#",str,values);

Finally, combines the keys and the values in a array

  $result= array_combine( $values[1], $values[2] );

answered Mar 1, 2015 at 23:08

Gaël Barbin

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