Parse query for year and price ranges

[Pawn]

The goal is to interpret user search submissions like the following in an intelligent way.

 

"oscar wilde 1903-1910 £4-10"

 

Ideally after pattern matching such a query the script would have variables like $price_min, $price_max, $year_min, $year_max and $query_clean to work with. With these we could construct really useful SQL.

 

All I've got for my efforts over the last couple of hours has been a headache. Can anyone help?

 

Pseudo-code:

 

$q = $_GET['query']
$price_range_expr = some_regex
$year_range_expr = some_more_regex

if $price_range = match all $price_range_expr in $q
    $q = strip $price_range from $q
    $price_min = $price_range[1]
    $price_max = $price_range[2]
endif
if $year_range = match all $year_range_expr in $q
    $q = strip $year_range from $q
    $price_min = $year_range[1]
    $price_max = $year_range[2]
endif

[carpiediem]

Give this a shot.

 

$price_range_expr = '/£(\d+)-£?(\d+)/';
$year_range_expr = '/([12]\d{3})-([12]\d{3})/';

 

Remember, if the query itself includes a year or price range, you'll run into trouble.

[Pawn]

Thanks! Close, but no cigar.

 

There's a test page here if it's any use.