On Wed, 2006-08-09 at 02:57 -0400, Robert Cummings wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-08-09 at 15:30 +0900, Dave M G wrote:
> > PHP List,
> >
> > This regular expression stuff is way tricky.
> >
> > Thanks to help from this list, I have an expression that will select the
> > first word of a string, up to the first white space:
> > "#^(.*)\s#iU"
> >
> > But after some consideration, I realized that I wanted to keep both
> > parts of the original text. The first word, and then everything that
> > came after it, should be divided and stored in separate variables.
> >
> > I looked through the php.net manual, and found preg_split().
> >
> > At first I thought using my original expression would work, if I
> > included the PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE parameter. It would pull out the
> > first word, but also keep it.
> >
> > Turns out that's not true. It removes the first word and the space, and
> > looks for something before and after and only finds something after.
> > Thus, in my current situation, it returns only one variable, which
> > contains everything after the first space.
> >
> > I realized what I need to do in this case is not select everything up to
> > the first space, but to find the first space without selecting what
> > comes before it. So the expression I had wasn't suitable for preg_split().
> >
> > So then, what is the right expression?
> >
> > Looking back over previous discussion and resources about regular
> > expression syntax, I thought I had to say:
> > Start at the beginning: ^
> > Ignore anything that isn't a space: [^\s]
> > Select the space character: \s
> > Be case insensitive and not greedy: iU
> >
> > Thus, my expression should be (using hash marks, #, as delimiters):
> > #^[^\s]|s#iU
> >
> > More specifically, my preg_split() syntax is:
> > $parts = preg_split("#^[^\s]|s#iU", $word, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
> >
> > But it returns a two element array, where the first element is empty,
> > and the second element is the whole original string.
> >
> > Where did I go wrong this time?
>
> Use preg_match() and pay special attention to the manual as it refers to
> the third parameter :) The expression you need follows:
>
> "#^([^\\s]*)\\s(.*)$#U"
>
> You don't need the insensitive modifier btw since you aren't actually
> matching anything that is applicable.
Also you don't need the ungreedy modifier either since you can't
overshoot with the above expression.
Cheers,
Rob.
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