PHP Match String Pattern and Get Variable

Question

I looked up some reference like this question and this question but could not figure out what I need to do.

What I am trying to do is:

Say, I have two strings:

$str1 = "link/usa";
$str2 = "link/{country}";

Now I want to check if this the pattern matches. If they match, I want the value of country to be set usa.

$country = "usa";

I also want it to work in cases like:

$str1 = "link/usa/texas";
$str2 = "link/{country}/{place}";

Maybe integers as well. Like match every braces and provide the variable with value. (And, yes better performance if possible)

I cannot get a work around since I am very new to regular expresssions. Thanks in advance.

kamal pal · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-11 05:50:05Z

6

It will give you results as expected

$str1 = "link/usa";
$str2 = "link/{country}";

if(preg_match('~link/([a-z]+)~i', $str1, $matches1) && preg_match('~link/{([a-z]+)}~i', $str2, $matches2)){
    $$matches2[1] = $matches1[1];
    echo $country;
}

Note: Above code will just parse alphabets, you can extend characters in range as per need.

UPDATE:

You can also do it using explode, see example below:

$val1 = explode('/', $str1);
$val2 = explode('/', $str2);
${rtrim(ltrim($val2[1],'{'), '}')} = $val1[1];
echo $country;

UPDATE 2

$str1 = "link/usa/texas/2/";
$str2 = "/link/{country}/{city}/{page}";

if(preg_match_all('~/([a-z0-9]+)~i', $str1, $matches1) && preg_match_all('~{([a-z]+)}~i', $str2, $matches2)){

    foreach($matches2[1] as $key => $matches){
        $$matches = $matches1[1][$key];
    }
    echo $country; 
    echo '<br>';
    echo $city;
    echo '<br>';
    echo $page;
}

edited Jul 11, 2015 at 5:50

answered Jul 11, 2015 at 5:04

kamal pal

4,1975 gold badges27 silver badges40 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

7 Comments

X Pahadi Over a year ago

How about the performance? Can I depend on this looping maybe a hundred times?

kamal pal Over a year ago

hundred times, no big deal, try it

kamal pal Over a year ago

@tika you can also do it using explode, if you would like to avoid regex, see my updated answer

X Pahadi Over a year ago

That works for the set example, but for /link/usa/texas/2/ type of links? Maybe the pattern be: /link/{country}/{city}/{page}. Please see that I have updated the question. I do not want the preg_match(~link) to be hard-coded.

Casimir et Hippolyte Over a year ago

${rtrim(ltrim($val2[1],'{'), '}')} => ${trim($val2, '{}')} is more simple.

|

Casimir et Hippolyte · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-11 16:04:49Z

2

I don't see the point to use the key as variable name when you can built an associative array that will be probably more handy to use later and that avoids to write ugly dynamic variable names ${the_name_of_the_var_${of_my_var_${of_your_var}}}:

$str1 = "link/usa/texas";
$str2 = "link/{country}/{place}";

function combine($pattern, $values) {
    $keys = array_map(function ($i) { return trim($i, '{}'); },
                      explode('/', $pattern));
    $values = explode('/', $values);

    if (array_shift($keys) == array_shift($values) && count($keys) &&
        count($keys) == count($values))
        return array_combine($keys, $values);
    else throw new Exception ("invalid format");
}

print_r(combine($str2, $str1));

edited Jul 11, 2015 at 16:04

answered Jul 11, 2015 at 15:53

Casimir et Hippolyte

90k5 gold badges102 silver badges131 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP Match String Pattern and Get Variable

2 Answers 2

7 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

7 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related