PHP: remove regex string from value in array

Question

I have an array $text:

Array
(
    [0] => "(This is so cool!)"
    [1] => "look at @[48382669205:275:JAY Z] and @[28940545600:27:Beyonc\303\251]'s page"
    [2] => "@[30042869909:32:Van Jones] on Bowe Bergdahl drama"    
)

I want to match delete the @[0-9] text, so my output looks like:

Array
(
    [0] => "(This is so cool!)"
    [1] => "look at JAY Z and Beyonc\303\251's page"
    [2] => "Van Jones on Bowe Bergdahl drama"    
)

I tried a whole bunch of things (preg_replace, etc) but this regex is so tricky I can't get the result I want! Any help is appreciated.

h2ooooooo · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-06 07:51:26Z

6

You can replace /@\[\d+:\d+:([^\]]+)\]/ with \1.

<?php

$array = array(
    "(This is so cool!)",
    "look at @[48382669205:275:JAY Z] and @[28940545600:27:Beyonc\303\251]'s page",
    "@[30042869909:32:Van Jones] on Bowe Bergdahl drama"    
);

$array = preg_replace('/@\[\d+:\d+:([^\]]+)\]/', '\1', $array);

print_r($array);

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => (This is so cool!)
    [1] => look at JAY Z and Beyoncé's page
    [2] => Van Jones on Bowe Bergdahl drama
)

DEMO

Regex Autopsy:

Regular expression visualization

@ - a literal at sign
\[ - a literal [ character - you need to escape it as [ is a regex character
\d+ - a digit matched 1 to infinity times
: - a literal colon sign
\d+ - a digit matched 1 to infinity times
: - a literal colon sign
([^\]]+) - a matching group matching any character that isn't a literal ] character matched 1 to infinity times (meaning it will match until it hits a ]):
\] - a literal ] character

edited Jun 6, 2014 at 7:51

answered Jun 6, 2014 at 7:37

h2ooooooo

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9 Comments

Brotheryura Over a year ago

See needed [1] => "look at JAY Z and Beyonc\303\251's page"

h2ooooooo Over a year ago

@Brotheyura That's just because escaped characters in " are expanded.

zx81 Over a year ago

+1, withdrew my answer as I hadn't read the question correctly. No need to duplicate your great work. :)

Toto Over a year ago

array_map is not mandatory, preg_replace works with arrays. Nevertheless +1.

h2ooooooo Over a year ago

@M42 Good call - there's absolutely no reason for array_map in this code then.

|

mleko · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-07 10:18:55Z

1

Not that tricky at all

<?php
$array = array(
    "(This is so cool!)",
    "look at @[48382669205:275:JAY Z] and @[28940545600:27:Beyonc\303\251]'s page",
    "@[30042869909:32:Van Jones] on Bowe Bergdahl drama"    
);
$pattern = '#@\[(\d+:){2}(.*?)\]#';

$result[$k] = preg_replace($pattern, "$2", $array);

edited Jun 7, 2014 at 10:18

answered Jun 6, 2014 at 7:44

mleko

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1 Comment

TerryE Over a year ago

preg_replace can operate on arrays and return an array. Using an array rather than a for loop involves less code and runs faster, hence my -1

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