splitting string and making into seperate variables

[dsaba]

i need some help with a new endeavour, i will list what I want to do, how I think it should be done

and hopefully someone can tell me how to do this with php

 

i am querying fieldnames from a table in a mysql database

 

so lets say i query and make

$filename = $row['filename']

 

lets say that this $filename = "Linux- version [2.0]-new (2006)";

 

so I get that string back

 

first i want to remove these characters from the string: -, [, ], (, )

 

so now the string will look like: "Linux version 2.0new 2006"

 

now I want to make keywords out of each word in the string

and make variables for each keyword that i pull out

i also want to make pretty keywords too, for example i dont want "2.0new" as a keyword

rather: 2.0 is one keyword and new is another

 

then i want to submit these variables back into the db as keywords in a new table

 

 

i have researched split string functions but what i am confused about is how it will make the individual keywords, how it will differentiate 2.0new as two keywords rather than one

and how I can make multiple keywords and different variables for each split i pull out of the string

 

[btherl]

It's better if you don't remove the extra characters before splitting.  Your question "How does it know 2.0 and new should be seperate?" is a good one.  The answer is "It doesn't know".

 

Instead, try this:

 

$results = preg_split('|[\[\]() -]+|', $filename);

[rcorlew]

you could also try using the substr() function if you know how many letters and symbols are in each filename and what position they are in.

 

ex..

 

$stringtosplit = $filename;

 

$key_1 = substr($stringtosplit, 0,5);

$key_2 = substr($stringtosplit, 8,14);

 

and so forth.

 

The key would be know how many places are in each file name, that would only work if they are all named using the same name format.

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

Substring is a very bad way to do it unless you know, like you said, where everything is, and often times, you won't.