[SOLVED] Getting Certain Part of String

[cheechm]

Hi,

I have this string:

/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting&1217980250839

(and many more like it). I was wondering how I could get "Lighting". I specifically want it so that it looks for "Lighting" after the = sign after "category". Ie, like $_GET['category'], just I can't do that.

Thanks

[markjoe]

http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php

 

preg_match("/category=(.*)\b/", $stringVar, $matches);
$matches[1];

 

$matches[1] will be "Lighting"

 

This is off the top of my head (not sure if I used word boundry right), but there is the man page link also.

It's at least a start.

[cheechm]

Almost! Althought it includes the bit after lighting.

[discomatt]

I think you want this guy

 

http://php.net/manual/en/function.parse-str.php

[DarkWater]

Yeah, I was just about to suggest that.  Try:

<?php
$str = "/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting&1217980250839";
$str = substr($str, strpos($str, '?'));
parse_str($str, $output);
echo $output['category'];
?>

[discomatt]

You can use strstr to isolate just the query as well

 

<?php

# Untested

$str = '/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting&1217980250839';

$query = substr( strstr($str, '?'), 1 );

parse_str( $query, $query_array );

print_r( $query_array );

?>

[DarkWater]

Woops, forgot to take care of the ?:

 

<?php
$str = "/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting&1217980250839";
$str = substr($str, strpos($str, '?') + 1);
parse_str($str, $output);
echo $output['category'];
?>

[.josh]

here's my take:

<?php
$url = "/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting&1217980250839";
$url_query = parse_url($url);
parse_str($url_query['query']);
echo $category;
?>

[DarkWater]

Any of the 3 work. xD  There's like, a million ways to accomplish any particular task in PHP. >_<

[discomatt]

here's my take:

<?php
$url = "/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting&1217980250839";
$url_query = parse_url($url);
parse_str($url_query['query']);
echo $category;
?>

 

This way will create an un-needed array, and generally take more processing power than basic string comparisons... but yes, it will work

[cheechm]

Thanks very much. Solved!

[.josh]

here's my take:

<?php
$url = "/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting&1217980250839";
$url_query = parse_url($url);
parse_str($url_query['query']);
echo $category;
?>

 

This way will create an un-needed array, and generally take more processing power than basic string comparisons... but yes, it will work

 

You know, according to the manual, parse_url is supposed to accept a second argument to only return the part you want (as a string), but when I tried to add PHP_URL_QUERY as the 2nd argument, php kept screaming at me about how parse_url only accepts one argument...so...am I just not understanding the manual right, or is the manual wrong?

 

edit:

 

Oh wait, I just read further down: the component argument is a feature of php5 I was testing it on a php4 server. whoops 

[cheechm]

I am using this one:

 

<?php
$str = "/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting&1217980250839";
$str = substr($str, strpos($str, '?') + 1);
parse_str($str, $output);
echo $output['category'];
?>

 

However, the plus sign doesn't seem to work. If the string contains a plus sign, for instance "Lighting+", then the plus doesn't show. Please help!

 

 

Thanks

[DarkWater]

Give me an example string please.

[cheechm]

/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting+&1217980250839

[Barand]

a plus sign in a URL represents a space.

[cheechm]

But it is a string now. The string contains the plus sign.

[DarkWater]

Yes, but parse_str() assumes a URL.  Try urlencode()'ing the output?

[discomatt]

Plus signs are converted to ' ' by parse_str.

 

urlencode will conver it to it's hex equivalent (%2B)...

 

In order to get the exact string-to-string conversion, you'll have to urlencode the string before parse_str, and urldecode after...

[DarkWater]

Yeah, that's what I meant. >_<  Thanks.

[cheechm]

I tried that and it didn't seem to work.

[cheechm]

Bump 

[cheechm]

Bumpity bump.

[discomatt]

You know what? Just use regex

 

<?php

$subject = '/server/lhs/admin/pages/4.php?act=1&step=2&category=Lighting+&1217980250839';
preg_match('/category=([^&]++)/', $subject, $match );

echo $match[1];

?>

[sasa]

wrong post