php break string into smaller parts based on string, not length

Question

I have read up on the php functions wordwrap and chunk_split but I can't figure out how to break down a string into smaller chunks when there are no physical breaks in the string.

I have a URL-encoded string:

%5B%7B%22partNumber%22%3A%2243160-1104%22%7D%2C%7B%22partNumber%22%3A%2242410-6170%22%7D%2C%7B%22partNumber%22%3A%2222-10-2021%22%7D%2C%7B%22partNumber%22%3A%2255091-0674%22%7D%2C%7B%22partNumber%22%3A%2243160-0106%22%7D%2C%7B%22partNumber%22%3A%2287832-1420%22%7D%2C%7B%22partNumber%22%3A%2273415-1001%22%7D%2C%7B%22partNumber%22%3A%2253627-1274%22%7D%2C%7B%22partNumber%22%3A%2243650-0510%22%7D%5D

of a bunch of part numbers I'm feeding into an API. This API can only take 500 characters at a time before it returns a false to me, so I need to break my string down to UNDER 500 characters, but still be a complete, searchable string.

Meaning - however it's broken down, each iteration of this new string needs to be

under 500 characters
end with B%22, so that the next iteration of the string starts with
partNumber%22

I'm not sure how I would accomplish this using the wordwrap + explode method as I've only ever used this to break a string by length. Is there a function similar to this that I can use where I can specify an exact string to break at after so many characters?

Hi, check your string by decoding on meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder . Your string is a JSON string and you can simply decode it then parse it. This would be the best way. Is the API Restful? If so, just pass the pure JSON after the conversion. — Hozikimaru
– Hozikimaru, Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 15:06

James Spence · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-03 14:59:29Z

1

use explode.

$apiStrings = explode("B%22", $string);
foreach($apiStrings as $apiString)
{
    //Do request
}

answered Apr 3, 2015 at 14:59

James Spence

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4 Comments

Brian Powell Over a year ago

I'd thought about that, but this forces me to do ~500 searches, which is incredibly slow. With the length of a general part number, I can do about 50 parts in a single search, so I'd prefer not to break it up into something THAT small.... if possible.

James Spence Over a year ago

You could explode, check string length, and concat strings together as needed to form a longer request.

Hozikimaru Over a year ago

This is the wrong way, he should not split the string like this. The string is a json when it is decoded. So something more compatible and uniform should be written to accommodate future requirements.

James Spence Over a year ago

@JohnWu how exactly is this string generated? Do you generate it?

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