Regular expression help please (hopefully simple)

[Reckless]

I've got a file with this in it:
[Event "Some string data"]

The data I'd like extracted is within the quotes: Some string data

I can read the file out and extract (using string positions) the data I'd
like but it would neater if I use a regular expression. Only problem is I've
never seen a working example of this type of extraction and am completely
new to PHP.

Thanks in advance

[John]

Re: Regular expression help please (hopefully simple)

"Reckless" <reckless@nospa m.com> a écrit dans le message de news:
cj9r83$474$1@ti tan.btinternet. com...[color=blue]
> I've got a file with this in it:
> [Event "Some string data"]
>
> The data I'd like extracted is within the quotes: Some string data
>
> I can read the file out and extract (using string positions) the data I'd
> like but it would neater if I use a regular expression. Only problem is[/color]
I've[color=blue]
> never seen a working example of this type of extraction and am completely
> new to PHP.
>
> Thanks in advance
>[/color]

$MyString = "Event \"Some string data\"" ;
preg_match("/^Event \"([^\"]+)\"$/", $MyString, $RegArray) ;
echo $RegArray[1] ; # should display : Some string data

--
John

https://www.realposition.com

[Michael Fesser]

Re: Regular expression help please (hopefully simple)

.oO(John)
[color=blue]
>$MyString = "Event \"Some string data\"" ;
>preg_match("/^Event \"([^\"]+)\"$/", $MyString, $RegArray) ;[/color]

JFTR: You can also use single quotes, this avoids the ugly escaping,
e.g.

preg_match('/Event "(.+)"/sU', ...);

Micha

[Reckless]

Re: Regular expression help please (hopefully simple)

Hi,

Thanks for the sample. Unfortunately I'm getting a null return value. This
looks to be a problem as my input line has square brackets in the source
string. If you could describe the components of the regular expression
string - this bit: ("/^Event \"([^\"]+)\"$/") perhaps I can add them in.

Thanks again!

"John" <john@nospam.or g> wrote in message
news:415872b4$0 $13505$626a14ce @news.free.fr.. .[color=blue]
> "Reckless" <reckless@nospa m.com> a écrit dans le message de news:
> cj9r83$474$1@ti tan.btinternet. com...[color=green]
> > I've got a file with this in it:
> > [Event "Some string data"]
> >
> > The data I'd like extracted is within the quotes: Some string data
> >
> > I can read the file out and extract (using string positions) the data[/color][/color]
I'd[color=blue][color=green]
> > like but it would neater if I use a regular expression. Only problem is[/color]
> I've[color=green]
> > never seen a working example of this type of extraction and am[/color][/color]
completely[color=blue][color=green]
> > new to PHP.
> >
> > Thanks in advance
> >[/color]
>
> $MyString = "Event \"Some string data\"" ;
> preg_match("/^Event \"([^\"]+)\"$/", $MyString, $RegArray) ;
> echo $RegArray[1] ; # should display : Some string data
>
> --
> John
> www.realposition.com
>
>[/color]

[Justin Koivisto]

Re: Regular expression help please (hopefully simple)

Reckless wrote:
[color=blue]
> "John" <john@nospam.or g> wrote in message
> news:415872b4$0 $13505$626a14ce @news.free.fr.. .
>[color=green]
>>"Reckless" <reckless@nospa m.com> a écrit dans le message de news:
>>cj9r83$474$1@ titan.btinterne t.com...
>>[color=darkred]
>>>I've got a file with this in it:
>>> [Event "Some string data"]
>>>
>>>The data I'd like extracted is within the quotes: Some string data
>>>
>>>I can read the file out and extract (using string positions) the data[/color][/color]
> I'd[color=green][color=darkred]
>>>like but it would neater if I use a regular expression. Only problem is[/color]
>>
>>I've[color=darkred]
>>>never seen a working example of this type of extraction and am[/color][/color]
> completely[color=green][color=darkred]
>>>new to PHP.[/color]
>>
>>$MyString = "Event \"Some string data\"" ;
>>preg_match( "/^Event \"([^\"]+)\"$/", $MyString, $RegArray) ;
>>echo $RegArray[1] ; # should display : Some string data
>>[/color]
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the sample. Unfortunately I'm getting a null return value. This
> looks to be a problem as my input line has square brackets in the source
> string. If you could describe the components of the regular expression
> string - this bit: ("/^Event \"([^\"]+)\"$/") perhaps I can add them in.[/color]

Try something like:
preg_match('/^\[Event "(.*)(?!<(" \]))"\]/sU', $str, $matches);

That would look for
[Event "

At the beginning of a line, then match everything until it finds"
"]

Then $matches[1] would have the "data"

--
Justin Koivisto - spam@koivi.com

http://www.koivi.com

[Reckless]

Re: Regular expression help please (hopefully simple)


"Michael Fesser" <netizen@gmx.ne t> wrote in message
news:d8ugl05ih9 9jfn63ilm4loep4 utbdf1beh@4ax.c om...[color=blue]
> .oO(John)
>[color=green]
> >$MyString = "Event \"Some string data\"" ;
> >preg_match("/^Event \"([^\"]+)\"$/", $MyString, $RegArray) ;[/color]
>
> JFTR: You can also use single quotes, this avoids the ugly escaping,
> e.g.
>
> preg_match('/Event "(.+)"/sU', ...);
>
> Micha[/color]

That's great thanks :)

Any recommended reading on the syntax of those pattern match strings? TIA!

[kingofkolt]

Re: Regular expression help please (hopefully simple)

"Reckless" <reckless@nospa m.com> wrote in message
news:cj9r83$474 $1@titan.btinte rnet.com...[color=blue]
> I've got a file with this in it:
> [Event "Some string data"]
>
> The data I'd like extracted is within the quotes: Some string data
>
> I can read the file out and extract (using string positions) the data I'd
> like but it would neater if I use a regular expression. Only problem is[/color]
I've[color=blue]
> never seen a working example of this type of extraction and am completely
> new to PHP.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
>[/color]

$tmp = '[Event "Some string data"]';
$tmp2 = str_replace( array( '[Event "', '"]' ), '', $tmp );

[Michael Fesser]

Re: Regular expression help please (hopefully simple)

.oO(Reckless)
[color=blue]
>"Michael Fesser" <netizen@gmx.ne t> wrote in message
>news:d8ugl05ih 99jfn63ilm4loep 4utbdf1beh@4ax. com...
>[color=green]
>> preg_match('/Event "(.+)"/sU', ...);[/color]
>
>That's great thanks :)
>
>Any recommended reading on the syntax of those pattern match strings? TIA![/color]

The manual? ;)

Short explanation of the pattern above:

/ opening pattern delimiter
Event " exact string match
( start of subpattern, this will be returned as result
.. any char ...
+ ... in any number, but at least one
) close subpattern
" exact string match
/ closing delimiter
s modifier: the dot . will also match on newlines
U modifier: all quantifiers (+ for example) turn to
ungreedy and match the shortest possible result (default
is greedy with matching the longest possible result)

HTH
Micha