Question

I would like to extract labels and data from a string using php. The string looks like this:

 Label: Info;
 Label1: Info1;
 Label2: Info2;
 Label3: Info3;
 ..............

My solution is to use strpos for every label , retain it in a variable and extract data for that label which is too slow. Could you suggest me another method ?

Answer 1

I am most certainly not an expert with REGEX, but this is the solution I came up with that worked.

$ptn = "/(Label[0-9]?):?.?(.+);/";
$str = "Label: Info;
Label1: Info1;
Label2: Info2;
Label3: Info3;";
preg_match_all($ptn, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);

Now using print_r on $matches returns the following:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => Label: Info;
            [1] => Label
            [2] => Info
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => Label1: Info1;
            [1] => Label1
            [2] => Info1
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => Label2: Info2;
            [1] => Label2
            [2] => Info2
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => Label3: Info3;
            [1] => Label3
            [2] => Info3
        )

)