Preg replace help

[SJshah]

I need a php function including a preg replace line (or two) which will:
- delete all brackets, apostrophe's, special characters
- replace numbers with spaces
- delete all words less than 3 characters
- trim the spaces

Unfortunately I'm a noob in php, and an uber-noob with regex.

Is there anyone here who can help me out?

 

[chems]

lol good luck brother

try to read some php ebooks

i m reading 500 pages one

 

[Hyperz]

<?php

function clean($txt)
{
    // remove everything that is not a word char, whitespace or a number
    $result = preg_replace('/[^\w\d\s]/', '', $txt);
    // replace numbers and trim spaces
    $result = preg_replace('/(\d+|[ ]{2,})/', ' ', $result);
    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/\b[\w]{1,3}\b/', '', $result);
    
    return $result;
}

?>

Try that. Not sure if it works, never used regex in PHP.

 

[SJshah]

Thanks Hyperz, its almost the way I want it

Could you make it keep all hyphens "-" in tact and also trim any extra spaces?

 

[Hyperz]

By spaces do you mean all whitespace (incl. newlines etc)?

 

[SJshah]

I mean spaces " ", like double/triple spaces and extra spaces on the ends of the string.
There are no new lines.

 

[Mr Happy]

I mean spaces " ", like double/triple spaces and extra spaces on the end.
There are no new lines.

Doesn't that mean you'll end up with one long line of string like:

Doesntthatmeanyoullendwithlonglinestringlike

 

[SJshah]

I mean any extra spaces, so if there is a double/triple space there it will be converted into a single space. Since the regex deletes all the numbers and words less than 3 chars, it leaves loads of extra spaces in once the string is returned.

I already tried

    $result = trim($result, " ");

but it only removes the extra spaces on the ends

 

[Hyperz]

<?php

function clean($txt)
{
    // remove everything that is not a word, _, -, whitespace or a number
    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/([^\w\d\s\-]+|\b\w{1,3}\b)/', '', $txt);
    // replace numbers with a space
    $result = preg_replace('/\d+/', ' ', $result);
    // trim spaces
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]{2,}/', ' ', $result);
    // trim spaces at the end or beginning of lines
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]*(\r{0,1}\n)[ ]*/', '$1', $result);
    
    return $result;
}

?>

Had a little mistake in the other one too. Let me know if this does the trick.

Edit:
Added trimming of EOL spaces.

 

[SJshah]

^ that fixes the spaces prob

but now it doesn't delete the words less than 3 chars from the string :/


edit: looks like you accidentally edited out this line:

    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/\b[\w]{1,3}\b/', '', $result);

added it back in, looks like it works perfectly

thanks m8

 

[Hyperz]

How about

<?php

function clean($txt)
{
    // remove everything that is not a word, _, -, whitespace or a number
    $result = preg_replace('/[^\w\d\s\-]+/', '', $txt);
    // replace numbers with a space
    $result = preg_replace('/\d+/', ' ', $result);
    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/\b\w{1,3}\b/', '', $result);
    // trim spaces
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]{2,}/', ' ', $result);
    // trim spaces at the end or beginning of lines
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]*(\r{0,1}\n)[ ]*/', '$1', $result);
    
    return $result;
}

?>

Grrr PHP X-(

 

[Mr Happy]

How about

    // trim whitespace at the end or beginning of lines
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]*(\r{0,1}\n)[ ]*/', '$1', $result);

This can be just:

$result = trim($result);

 

[SJshah]

Yup, seems to work now I used this to trim the spaces from the beginning and the end:

    $result = trim($result);

But that brings up another problem, there are extra hyphens at the beginning and the end after the numbers/words under 3chars have been deleted. It needs to trim any remaining hyphens from the beginning and end too, before trimming the whitespace. I tried these lines but neither worked:

    $result = trim($result, "-");

    $result = preg_replace('/[-]*(\r{0,1}\n)[-]*/', '$1', $result);

 

[Hyperz]

trim($result) will not only trim spaces but also newlines (\r \n and others) I think. I'll just leave this for litewarez or someone else who is more familiar with PHP.

 

[SJshah]

^ that shouldn't be a problem since they are only 1-liner's

thanks for all the help m8


got it down to this:

function clean($txt)
{
    // remove everything that is not a word, _, -, whitespace or a number
    $result = preg_replace('/([^\w\d\s\-]+|\b[\w]{1,3}\b)/', '', $txt);
    // replace numbers with a space
    $result = preg_replace('/\d+/', ' ', $result);
    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/\b[\w]{1,3}\b/', '', $result);
    // trim spaces
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]{2,}/', ' ', $result);
    $result = trim($result);
    
    return $result;
}

 

[Hyperz]

Screw it, bored anyways:

<?php

function clean($txt)
{
    // remove everything that is not a word, _, -, whitespace or a number
    $result = preg_replace('/[^\w\d\s\-]+/', '', $txt);
    // replace numbers with a space
    $result = preg_replace('/\d+/', ' ', $result);
    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/\b\w{1,3}\b/', '', $result);
    // trim spaces
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]{2,}/', ' ', $result);
    // trim -
    $result = preg_replace('/-{2,}/', '-', $result);
    // trim spaces and - at the end or beginning of lines
    $result = preg_replace('/[ \-]*(\r{0,1}\n)[ \-]*/', '$1', $result);
    
    return $result;
}

?>

FYI, $result = trim($result); doesn't do the same thing as the line you replaced it with.

 

[SJshah]

Yeah, but this line doesn't seem to work:

    // trim spaces and - at the end or beginning of lines
    $result = preg_replace('/[ \-]*(\r{0,1}\n)[ \-]*/', '$1', $result);

Since its not trimming the spaces from the ends :/

trim($result) seems to do the trick.

 

[Hyperz]

<?php

function clean($txt)
{
    // remove everything that is not a word, _, -, whitespace or a number
    $result = preg_replace('/[^\w\d\s\-]+/', '', $txt);
    // replace numbers with a space
    $result = preg_replace('/\d+/', ' ', $result);
    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/\b\w{1,3}\b/', '', $result);
    // trim spaces
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]{2,}/', ' ', $result);
    // trim -
    $result = preg_replace('/-{2,}/', '-', $result);
    // trim spaces and - at the end or beginning of lines
    $result = preg_replace('/[ \-]*(\r{0,1}\n)[ \-]*/', '$1', $result);
    
    return trim($result, '- \t\n\r\0\x0B');
}

?>

The regex only trimmed spaces where there were new lines, not at the beginning or end of the string (which is what trim does).