Re: POSIX and PCRE help

Lewis, First I would look at breaking out the tags: // User: JohnDoe; age=32; nickname="Billy 'the' Kid"; haircolor=orange; $string = 'User: JohnDoe; age=32; nickname="Billy \'the\' Kid"; haircolor=orange;'; $stringArray = preg_split('/;/', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY); Then split by the = or : // split by = or : foreach ($stringArray as $item) { list($tag, $element) = preg_split('/\:|\=/', $item, 1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY); echo "$tag => $element<br />"; } -aaron "Orangehairedboy" <me@orangehairedboy.com> wrote in message news:20021116071951.35473.qmail@pb1.pair.com... > I am trying to learn more about regular expressions as I haven't used them > much in the past. I am working with email, and I'm looking for a way to > split the following expression up: > > Content-Type: text/plain; boundary="whatever"; > > Using "/^(\S+)\:\s*(.+)$/iU" I can split it into: > > [Content-Type] and [text/plain; boundary="whatever";] > > Problem is, it might have different tags. Here's a sketch of the whole > thing: > > [Header Name a-zA-Z0-9] [\s*] [:] [\s*] [ Header value a-zA-Z0-9/_ ] [\s*] > [;] [ unlimited repeating pattern of ( [Property Name a-zA-Z0-9] [\s*] [=] > [\s*] ( string optionally surrounded by quotes - but necessary if value has > spaces - but can't include quotes ) [\s*] [;] ) ] > > So, if I had: > > User: JohnDoe; age=32; nickname="Billy 'the' Kid"; haircolor=orange; > > I would need: > > User - "JohnDoe" - age - "32" - nickname - "Billy 'the' > Kid" - haircolor - > "orange" > > in the outputted array. I have no idea how to do repeating patterns like > this...maybe I'm making this too complex? > > Thanks for your help! > > Lewis > >