note 89649 added to function.preg-split

If the task is too complicated for preg_split, preg_match_all might come in handy, since preg_split is essentially a special case. I wanted to split a string on a certain character (asterisk), but only if it wasn't escaped (by a preceding backslash). Thus, I should ensure an even number of backslashes before any asterisk meant as a splitter. Look-behind in a regular expression wouldn't work since the length of the preceding backslash sequence can't be fixed. So I turned to preg_match_all: <?php // split a string at unescaped asterisks // where backslash is the escape character $splitter = "/\\*((?:[^\\\\*]|\\\\.)*)/"; preg_match_all($splitter, "*$string", $aPieces, PREG_PATTERN_ORDER); $aPieces = $aPieces[1]; // $aPieces now contains the exploded string // and unescaping can be safely done on each piece foreach ($aPieces as $idx=>$piece) $aPieces[$idx] = preg_replace("/\\\\(.)/s", "$1", $piece); ?> ---- Server IP: 81.223.48.75 Probable Submitter: 80.108.23.194 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-split.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/89649 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89649/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89649/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89649/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89649/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89649/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89649/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/89649 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/89649 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php