Help me pleeeeease! My head is sore from banging it into the wall! lol

[FiremanSam]

Hi,

I am trying to extract a address from a txt file (Emergency Pager Messages) and I've got to the point where I strip everything not needed in the string but I am left with this:

 

BURNOFF THREATENING 33 SOMEPLACE RD MONTROSE

 

My question is this, how do I strip everything BEFORE  (which could be numerous different words) the number leaving just:

 

33 SOMEPLACE RD MONTROSE

 

And second question how can I strip everything after the number (including the number itself) leaving just:

BURNOFF THREATENING

 

There can be a thousand different words before the number describing the job and yer as I said I need to strip them to leave the address but also need to strip the address leaving the description only...

 

I hope that makes sense and I'd REALLY appreciate any pointers in the right direction...

 

[xyph]

So you want to split the string immediately before the first number?

[FiremanSam]

Yep. Sorry if I confusing! It's 3.30am here and I confuse myself too. lol

[Psycho]

Help me pleeeeease! My head is sore from banging it into the wall! lol

 

Well, then stop banging your head into the wall then. Problem solved.

 

Here is one solution:

$input = "BURNOFF THREATENING 33 SOMEPLACE RD MONTROSE";

preg_match("#\d.*#", $input, $addressMatch);
$address = $addressMatch[0];
echo "Address: $address"; //Output: Address: 33 SOMEPLACE RD MONTROSE

preg_match("#^[^\d]+#", $input, $beforeMatch);
$beforeText = trim($beforeMatch[0]);
echo "Text before address: $beforeText"; //Output: Text before address: BURNOFF THREATENING 

[Psycho]

This should be slightly more efficient since only one regular expression is needed

$input = "BURNOFF THREATENING 33 SOMEPLACE RD MONTROSE";

preg_match("#\d#", $input, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE);
$cutPosition = $matches[0][1];
$beforeText = trim(substr($input, 0, $cutPosition));
$address    = trim(substr($input, $cutPosition));