Regular Expression Help

[myares]

I wanted to sort out a code which will work like this (for any variable):

 

$x = "A.S.M. Jackel"

$x = "A. S. M. Jackel"

 

I mean it will check the variable and if the variable doesn't have a space next to the . [dot] it will replace it and add a space next to it. If it already have a space next to the . [dot] it won't change anything. Can someone help me out?

[gizmola]

preg_replace is what you want to look at.  Check this out:

 

 

$x = "A.S.M. Jackel";
$y = "A. S. M. Jackel";

$pattern = '/(\.)([^ ])/';
$replace = '$1 $2';

echo preg_replace($pattern, $replace, $x);
echo '   ';
echo preg_replace($pattern, $replace, $y);

 

 

 

 

[myares]

thanks a lot buddy! it worked!

[salathe]

For what it's worth, life could be made simpler by using a regular expression which reads like match a dot which is not followed by a space character:

 

$pattern = '/\.(?! )/';
$replace = '. ';

 

The (?! ) is a "negative lookahead assertion" and is a fancy way of saying, "take a peek at the next character and make sure it is not a space". See http://php.net/regexp.reference.assertions

 

 

 

 

[gizmola]

Yeah Salathe has a better solution in this case even though they both work ok.

[sasa]

or

$pattern = '/\. */';
$replace = '. ';

[salathe]

or

$pattern = '/\. */';
$replace = '. ';

 

Sure, except that doesn't do what the OP asked for.