PHP Regex Match Troubles

Question

I have some data in a string in the format key: value key: value key: value etc...

I'm trying to turn it into an array using a regex match. The keys are all uppercase letters directly followed by a colon. Then there is a space and the value starts. This is then followed by a space and then the next key. The value can contain upper/lowercase letters, numbers, space, comma or equals sign.

For example, I'd like this input string:

NAME: Name of Item COLOR: green SIZE: 40

Turned into this array:

newArray[NAME] = Name of Item
newArray[COLOR] = green
newArray[SIZE] = 40

Any help is much appreciated. Also I don't have access to the formatting of the input, or I'd make this a lot easier on myself.

if one of the answers below solved your problem please accept it by clicking on the tick next to the answer — ghostJago
– ghostJago, Commented Sep 27, 2011 at 16:30

Paul · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-26 06:41:41Z

2

A generic solution:

$str = 'NAME: Name of Item COLOR: green SIZE: 40';

$split = preg_split('/([A-Z]+):/', $str, -1,
            PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE | PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);

echo 'Split Array is: ' . var_export($split, true);

$newArray = array();

// Stick the key and value together (processing two entries at a time.
for ($i = 0; $i < count($split) - 1; $i = $i + 2)
{
   $newArray[$split[$i]] = trim($split[$i + 1]); // Probably trim them.
}

echo 'New Array is: ' . var_export($newArray, true);

answered Sep 26, 2011 at 6:41

Paul

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Comments

user187291 · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-26 06:53:29Z

0

I'd suggest

$str = "NAME: Name of Item COLOR: green SIZE: 40";

preg_match_all('~([A-Z]+):(.+?)(?=[A-Z]+:|$)~', $str, $m, PREG_SET_ORDER);
foreach($m as $e)
    $result[$e[1]] = trim($e[2]);

print_r($result);

answered Sep 26, 2011 at 6:53

user187291

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1 Comment

Brack Over a year ago

Paul's answer worked better for my dataset, but thanks for the help.

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