Question

I’m looking to php preg_match to break out a faceted search string.

example search input:
chevy tahoe city:seattle color:desert dune capacity:7

• search criteria: chevy tahoe
• city facet: seattle
• color facet: desert dune
• capacity facet: 7

search criteria will always be first in the input string…but the facets could be interchangeable.

Answer 1

Try this. It should work.

$criteria = '';
$facets = array();
foreach (explode(' ' , $input) as $word) {

    // This word is a facet
    if (strpos($word, ':')) {
        list($facet_name, $facet_criteria) = explode(':', $word, 1);
        $facets[$facet_name] = $facet_criteria;

    // This word is a search criteria
    } else {
        $criteria .= $word . ' ';
    }

}

Input ($input value):

chevy tahoe city:seattle color:desert dune capacity:7

Output:

$criteria: chevy tahoe dune 

$facets: Array (
    [city] => seattle
    [color] => desert
    [capacity] => 7
)