PHP Question - How to create an array out of a string?

Question

In my database, some field settings are serialized and stored. When I do this:

print_r(unserialized($r['settings']));

I'll get this:

Array ( 
[prefix] => 
[suffix] => 
[min] => 
[max] => 
[allowed_values] => 1|Common 2|Rare 3|Almost Extinct 
)

I'm trying to create an array based on the values for allowed_values like this:

Array (
[1] => Common
[2] => Rare
[3] => Almost Extinct
)

The problem is, when I use explode("|", $r['allowed_values']), I get:

Array(
[0] => 1
[1] => Common 2
[2] => Rare 3
[3] => Almost Extinct
)

Which, makes sense, but obviously not what I was hoping for... So, I'm just wondering if there's a simple way to do what I'm trying here? I thought about using explode multiple times, once for spaces, and once for pipes, but that won't work either because of the space in "Almost Extinct"...

Answer 1

I think this should work. This splits the first number and the "|" char

<?php
$string = "1|Faruk 2|Test";
$array = preg_split('/\d/', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY); 
$content = explode("|", implode($array));

var_dump($content);
?>

And here is the Result

array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(0) ""
  [1]=>
  string(6) "Faruk "
  [2]=>
  string(4) "Test"
}

Answer 2

try this:

 $tab=array();
 preg_match_all("/\s*(\d+)\|([^\d]+)/",$r['allowed_values'],$tab);
 print_r(array_combine($tab[1],$tab[2]));

this should make the trick :)

Answer 3

If the original indexes are not sequential from 1, and you need to keep them as they are, see dweeves answer, as that keeps the indexes and values bound together correctly.

$string = unserialized($r['settings']['allowed_values']);
//$string = '1|Common 2|Rare 3|Almost Extinct';

print_r (preg_split("/\d+\|/", $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY));

Outputs:

Array
(
    [0] => Common 
    [1] => Rare 
    [2] => Almost Extinct
)

Answer 4

I would use a regex to match the pattern of each entry, but capture only the text of interest. Using preg_match_all(...), the $match object is populated with sub-arrays of the capture groups.

$input = '1|Common 2|Rare 3|Almost Extinct';
preg_match_all('/\d+\|([^\d]+)/',$input, $match);
print_r($match[1]);

Produces:

Array
(
    [0] => Common 
    [1] => Rare 
    [2] => Almost Extinct    
)

Note that if you're labels will use numbers, you'll need to tweak the regex.

This method also allows you to capture the number and create your own ordered array, if the values stored in your tables might be out of order.