exploding a text area

[freelance84]

Hi,

 

I've been asked to modify a section on a site for a local club.

 

Basically, I've been asked to improve the name input section (a user may have to input up 15 names in one visit to the site).

 

At the moment the site works like this:

The user enters one members first name in one form box, then the surname in another, then presses "add name" which adds it to the list.

 

What i want to be able to do (and i'm sure i've seen it somewhere), is have the user enter the list of names into one big text area: Type in the first name then the surname, hit enter for a new line in the text area then type the next name....etc. When the list is complete press "add names" button.

 

Is there a name for this type of input? And does it work on the following principle:

1. The entire text sent from the text area can be exploded into an array using the line break as the delimiter

2. Each value in the array is then the first name and second name.

3. I can then explode each value further now using the space as the delimiter.

4. I am left with a bunch of arrays containing the first name in one value and the surname in the second

 

Any help or pointers here would be class

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

 

 

[jcbones]

I would do just as you say with the text area and script it something like.

 

 

$name = $_POST['textarea'];$seperated_names = explode("\n",$name);$i = 0;foreach($seperated_names as $person) {$break_names = explode(' ',$person);$people_array[++$i]['firstname'] = $break_names[0];$people_array[$i]['lastname'] = $break_names[1];}foreach($people_array as $people) {echo '<br /><br />Firstname: ' . $people['firstname'] . '<br />Lastname: ' . $people['lastname'];}

 

[freelance84]

Cool, cheers i thought i mmight on the right track 

[Pikachu2000]

A name like 'John Paul Jones' will will result in Firstname: John Lastname: Paul

[PaulRyan]

To combat that dilema change the following...

 

$seperated_names = explode("\n",$name);

 

To...

 

$seperated_names = explode("\n",$name,2);

 

 

Regards, Paul.

[freelance84]

I can see the issue with adding middle names into the equation, however for now i am going to stick with only entering in the "known as" forename and the surname:

 

$sent_names = htmlentities($_POST['names']);
$seperated_names = explode("\n",$sent_names);
$i = 0;
foreach($seperated_names as $person)
{
	$break_names = explode(' ',$person);
	$first_name = ucfirst($break_names[0]);
	$surname = ucfirst($break_names[1]);
	if(empty($first_name) or empty($surname))
		{
			$no_name[++$i]['firstname'] = $first_name;
			$no_name[$i]['lastname'] = $surname;
		}
	else
		{
			$people_array[++$i]['firstname'] = $first_name;
			$people_array[$i]['lastname'] = $surname;
		}
}
print_r($people_array);
echo "<br/>There were some faults<br/>";
print_r($no_name);
echo "<br/>";

 

Hmm. The above works... if the users sticks to the rules.

 

-However, a double space between the first and last name results in the last name being empty.

-A space before the first name results in the first name being empty and the first name being the surname.

 

To get rid of the spaces at the start i could run a while loop saying if the 1st character == " " replace with ""

 

I would do the same to rid spaces at the end.

 

After checking for spaces at the beginning and end i want to be able to check the number of spaces between the two names... this is where i'm stumped. I want to replace multiple spaces with one space.

 

I know if i explode the string after ridding the spaces at the start and end means that the first and last value in the explode will be the first and last name. However i want to do it the other way as this will allow me to expand the system later to take in middle names.

 

Any ideas??

[BlueSkyIS]

to get rid of spaces at the start and end of a string, you can use trim()

[freelance84]

ah cool cheers.

 

Just the middle spaces to figure out now

[litebearer]

use string replace where the needle is 2 spaces and the replacement is one space

[freelance84]

Yea but then i have to write another line for three spaces, and another for four...ect.

 

 

I suppose i could leave the middle spaces.

explode the string

then array push the non empty items from the explode array.

 

 

[Pikachu2000]

preg_replace() would be better in this instance, since the pattern is actually "2 or more" spaces. Then you can process it further.

 

$name = ' billy  bob                                                       thornton ';

$name2 = preg_replace( '~\s{2,}~', ' ', $name);
print_r(explode(' ', trim($name2)));
// returns Array ( [0] => billy [1] => bob [2] => thornton )

[freelance84]

Ah, cool cheers.

 

Not very good with preg_replace: Don't really get how to figure out the patterns bit yet