Is it possible to loop through a variable getting whats inside the [*] every time?? (Its not an array).

PHP Code:

$text = "['PLAYER', '12', '-9.5', '140.5', 'Florentino Skears']['PLAYER', '22', '280.5', '160.5', 'Les Lazzo']['PLAYER', '11', '280.5', '120.5', 'Alberto Evan']['PLAYER', '5', '87.2', '215.5', 'Beau Jerome']['PLAYER', '1', '87.2', '140.5', 'Lewis Evan']['PLAYER', '10', '87.2', '65.5', 'Donny Cameron']['PLAYER', '15', '183.9', '230.5', 'Lavern Cable']['PLAYER', '13', '183.9', '170.5', 'Lyle Kozluk']['PLAYER', '17', '183.9', '110.5', 'Bret Ehret']['PLAYER', '26', '183.9', '50.5', 'Shelton White']['PLAYER', '30', '280.6', '215.5', 'Eloy Milne']['PLAYER', '19', '570.5', '140.5', 'Domenic Slater']['PLAYER', '3', '280.4', '190.5', 'Bryce Konstantopoulos']['PLAYER', '29', '280.4', '90.5', 'Benito Basso']['PLAYER', '4', '473.8', '230.5', 'Byran Colin']['PLAYER', '20', '473.8', '170.5', 'Jared Naysmith']['PLAYER', '27', '473.8', '110.5', 'John Pinney']['PLAYER', '16', '473.8', '50.5', 'Deangelo Pugh']['PLAYER', '14', '377.1', '230.5', 'Aurelio Munshower']['PLAYER', '6', '377.1', '170.5', 'Bradley Chauvin']['PLAYER', '21', '377.1', '110.5', 'Darren Wylie']['PLAYER', '18', '377.1', '50.5', 'Will Harris']" 


I want to be able to get whats in the first set of [] and then move onto the next set of [] etc...

$text is obviously a string, not an array, so the only way I could think would be parsing the string by lots of splitting

yeah ive found this how to split it.

PHP Code:

list($type, $id, $player_left, $player_top, $player_name) = split('[,]', $starting_formation); 


can anyone tell me the regular expression to seperate each []?

Here'd be one way:

PHP Code:

<?php
$text = "['PLAYER', '12', '-9.5', '140.5', 'Florentino Skears']['PLAYER', '22', '280.5', '160.5', 'Les Lazzo']['PLAYER', '11', '280.5', '120.5', 'Alberto Evan']['PLAYER', '5', '87.2', '215.5', 'Beau Jerome']['PLAYER', '1', '87.2', '140.5', 'Lewis Evan']['PLAYER', '10', '87.2', '65.5', 'Donny Cameron']['PLAYER', '15', '183.9', '230.5', 'Lavern Cable']['PLAYER', '13', '183.9', '170.5', 'Lyle Kozluk']['PLAYER', '17', '183.9', '110.5', 'Bret Ehret']['PLAYER', '26', '183.9', '50.5', 'Shelton White']['PLAYER', '30', '280.6', '215.5', 'Eloy Milne']['PLAYER', '19', '570.5', '140.5', 'Domenic Slater']['PLAYER', '3', '280.4', '190.5', 'Bryce Konstantopoulos']['PLAYER', '29', '280.4', '90.5', 'Benito Basso']['PLAYER', '4', '473.8', '230.5', 'Byran Colin']['PLAYER', '20', '473.8', '170.5', 'Jared Naysmith']['PLAYER', '27', '473.8', '110.5', 'John Pinney']['PLAYER', '16', '473.8', '50.5', 'Deangelo Pugh']['PLAYER', '14', '377.1', '230.5', 'Aurelio Munshower']['PLAYER', '6', '377.1', '170.5', 'Bradley Chauvin']['PLAYER', '21', '377.1', '110.5', 'Darren Wylie']['PLAYER', '18', '377.1', '50.5', 'Will Harris']" ;

$players = explode('][',$text);
foreach ($players as $index=>$a_player) {
  $players[$index] = explode("', '",$a_player);
  $players[$index][0] = trim($players[$index][0],"'[");
  $last_index = count($players[$index])-1;
  $players[$index][$last_index] = trim($players[$index][$last_index],"]'");
}
print '<pre>'.print_r($players,true).'</pre>';

?>

I wasn't able to find a single reg ex to do this.

Originally Posted by cammarata123

$text is obviously a string, not an array

Strings are arrays.

PHP Code:

//the string you are searching through
$text = "['PLAYER', '12', '-9.5', '140.5', 'Florentino Skears']";

//the strings within the []
$values = array();

$parseStr = false;
$currStr = '';
for($i = 0; $i < strlen($text); $i++)
{
     if($parseStr)
     {
          if($text[$i] == ']')
          {
               $parseStr = false;
               $values[] = $currStr;
               $currStr = '';
          }
          else
          {
               $currStr .= $text[$i];
          }
     }
     else
     {
          if($text[$i] == '[')
               $parseStr = true;
     }
} 


Matt's code is more efficient than mine. Guess I was convicted of being a lazy coder.

Originally Posted by JeremyMiller

Matt's code is more efficient than mine. Guess I was convicted of being a lazy coder.

I'm as guilty as you. I would have done it almost the exact same way as your example