PHP Regex Match getting unexpected output

Question

I'm trying to create a simple PHP script that retrieves info from a string and puts it into an array. Ive looked around on some sites on multi capture regex for one pattern but can't seem to get the output im looking for

Currently this is my script.

$input = "username: jack number: 20";
//$input = file_get_contents("test.txt");

preg_match_all("/username: ([^\s]+)|number: ([^\s]+)/", $input, $data);

var_dump($data);

Which produces this output:

0 => 
    array (size=2)
      0 => string 'username: jack' (length=14)
      1 => string 'number: 20' (length=10)
  1 => 
    array (size=2)
      0 => string 'jack' (length=4)
      1 => string '' (length=0)
  2 => 
    array (size=2)
      0 => string '' (length=0)
      1 => string '20' (length=2)

Im looking to get the data into the form of:

0 =>
  array (size=x)
    0 => string 'jack'
1 =>
  array (size=x)
    0 => string '20'

Or two different arrays where the keys correspond to the same user/number combo

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-13 11:27:22Z

2

You can use match-reset \K:

preg_match_all('/\b(?:username|number):\h*\K\S+/', $input, $data);

print_r($data[0]);
Array
(
    [0] => jack
    [1] => 20
)

RegEx Breakup:

\b                    => a word boundary
(?:username|number)   => matches username or number. (?:..) is non-capturing group
:\h*                  => matches a colon followed optional horizontal spaces
\K                    => match reset, causes regex engine to forget matched data
\S+                   => match 1 or more non-space chars

Or else you can use a capturing group to get your matched data like this:

preg_match_all('/\b(?:username|number):\h*(\S+)/', $input, $data);

print_r($data[1]);
Array
(
    [0] => jack
    [1] => 20
)

edited Oct 13, 2015 at 11:27

answered Oct 13, 2015 at 11:19

anubhava

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2 Comments

Mubin Over a year ago

that would be great if you describe for OP what RegEx is doing, I mean by splitting it like / starting of expression

anubhava Over a year ago

Yes added it in the answer now.

vks · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-13 11:18:32Z

0

(?<=username:|number:)\s*(\S+)

You can use lookbehind here.See demo.

https://regex101.com/r/mG8kZ9/10

answered Oct 13, 2015 at 11:18

vks

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