[SOLVED] Removing Multiple Occourances of a character in a String

[whatnow]

OK, this has to be so simple but i'm sitting in a could of confusion over this and going a little phpotty

 

The string is a local directory, let's say:

 

$y = www/repository/FT/forward/slashes/FT_-_forwardslashes2

 

but I'm building a string checking routine to ensure it can't be:

 

$y = www/ims_repository/FT////forward//////slashes//FT_-_forwardslashes2

 

for example.

 

Now what I'm thinking is something like:

 

$x = explode('/', $y);

foreach ($x as $key => $value){

$tmpStr .= $value . '/';

  if ($tmpStr = ????) {

        $tmpStr=""

  }

}

 

or maybe

 

$x = explode('/', $y);

foreach ($x as $key => $value){

$tmpStr .= $value . '/';

$z = strlen($tmpStr)

for ($i=0; $i<=$z; $i++) {

????// check if multiple slashes and reduce to one.

}

}

 

the ???? bit is what's getting me, if this routine is even close, this part is what I need to check for more than one slash and swap it for just one.

 

I have a feeling there's a really obvious regex to help me out?

 

I'd really appreciate any help.

[rhodesa]

<?php
$y = "www/ims_repository/FT////forward//////slashes//FT_-_forwardslashes2";
print preg_replace('#[\///]+#','/',$y);
?>

[whatnow]

ah so good of you, thank you very much - works perfectly.

 

I REALLY need to go learn regex, I have a feeling it'd make a lot of my code more efficient!!

 

thanks again

[rhodesa]

Read through the Quick Start and Tutorials on this site: http://www.regular-expressions.info

 

And after you get better, here is a good cheat sheet: http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/regular_expressions_cheat_sheet.pdf