[SOLVED] Simple Error Somewhere

[shane18]

I'm trying to make it so I can extract the Command Symbol, User Name, and Reason from a string. This will allow me to control my site w/o making a lot of pages/forms so please help.

 

<?
$CC = ".UserNameHere Reason Here";
preg_match("/^(\.|!|#|@|\+|^|\$|-|_|~)(.+?)\s?(.*)$/", $CC, $CCM);
echo "!----".$CCM[0]."-----".$CCM[1]."-----".$CCM[2]."----".$CCM[3]."----".$CCM[4]."----".$CCM[5]."----!";
?>

 

**NOTE** The Reason is optional that is why I got it optional in the regexp. **NOTE**

 

I get:

!----.TEST BLAH BLAH-----.-----T----EST BLAH BLAH------------!

[.josh]

$CC = ".UserNameHere Reason Here";
preg_match("/^([.!#@+^$_~-])([^\s]+)\s?(.*)$/", $CC, $CCM);
echo "<pre>";print_r($CCM);

[shane18]

opps..... i really got:

 

!----.UserNameHere Reason Here-----.-----U----serNameHere Reason Here------------!

[shane18]

that gave me

 

Array
(
    [0] => .UserNameHere Reason Here
    [1] => .
    [2] => U
    [3] => serNameHere Reason Here
)

[.josh]

this is what I get:

 

Array
(
    [0] => .UserNameHere Reason Here
    [1] => .
    [2] => UserNameHere
    [3] => Reason Here
)

[shane18]

oh i didn't notice you also edited the regex lol space.. thanks

[shane18]

can you explain to me what a negative class does exactly.

[.josh]

it matches one of anything not specified. So for example

 

[^a]

 

will match any one character that is not an 'a'

[.josh]

In the regex I provided specifically:

 

[^\s]+

 

means match 1 or more of anything that is not a space, tab or newline char.

[shane18]

1. why didn't what i posted work... it should of went to the first space.. then posted Username, then posted Reason Here... was it because of greedyness /lazyness?

 

 

2. so [^\s]+ will match until the first space then cancel?

[.josh]

1. why didn't what i posted work... it should of went to the first space.. then posted Username, then posted Reason Here... was it because of greedyness /lazyness?

 

Yes.  Since your first .+? is lazy, and you aren't requiring the following space, and your last .* is greedy, the first .+? is satisfied by the single char match, and the last .* matches everything else.

 

2. so [^\s]+ will match until the first space then cancel?

 

Yes. Or tab or newline. 

 

 

[shane18]

Thanks alot, now 1 more question.. is it possible to make the whole string match not showed in the matchs.. just the sub groups

[.josh]

The entire match is always shown in the first array element (element 0).  I notice in your OP you have this:

 

echo "!----".$CCM[0]."-----".$CCM[1]."-----".$CCM[2]."----".$CCM[3]."----".$CCM[4]."----".$CCM[5]."----!";

 

You could just remove it from your echo...

 

Alternatively, you can array_shift $CCM

[shane18]

I though ? make it 0 or 1 times... not OPTIONAL ... are optional things ignored in the regex even if they're there.

[.josh]

it effectively makes it optional.  But technically it is the same mechanics as making a lazy quantifier.  Instead of doing it on a "zero or more of this" (.*) or "one or more of this" (.+) you are doing a "one of this" (.?)

 

And even reading it like "0 or 1"  'or' is a logical condition.  Look at it in php terms:

 

if (0 or 1) { ... }

 

the condition is evaluated as true if the one on the left is true. php will not even look at the other side of that 'or'.