Question

I have to parse this template file ($html) :

{$myFirstVariable}
{$myMainVar:MYF1,"x\:x\,x",2:MYF2:MYF3,false}
{$myLastVariable:trim}

Following, my php parser :

$regexp = '#{\$(?<name>.+?)(\:(?<modifiers>.+?))?}#';

preg_replace_callback($regexp, 'separateVariable', $html);

function separateVariable($matches) {
    $varname = $matches['name'];

    print $varname."\n";

    if (isset($matches['modifiers'])) {
        $modifiers = $matches['modifiers'];

        $modifiers = preg_split('#(?<!\\\):#', $modifiers);
        $parsed = array();

        foreach ($modifiers as $modifier) {
            $modifier = preg_split('#(?<!\\\),#', $modifier);
            $parsed[array_shift($modifier)] = $modifier;
        }

        // parsed[myFuncName] = Array(2ndArg, 3rdArg)

        print_r($parsed);
    }

    print "\n";
}

All working except i’ve to escape ‘:’ and ‘,’ in {$myMainVar:…} with an ‘\’.

Do you have any solution to free me up of ‘\’ ?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Regular expression can’t return nested array, besides, what you are trying to seems more that text processing (substr, explode..) than having to use regular expression. Also, your example doesn’t make it clear how is the standard processing of the input works.

I suggest: Building a recursive function that deals with the logic of your unserialiing process, that function will use switch cases and string manipulation functions.