Question

Okay,

So here is my code:

        $explode = explode("+ ", $article);
        $explode_count = count($explode);

        for($i=0;$i<$explode_count;$i++)
        {
            $numbers = preg_replace('/[^0-9]/', '', $explode[$i]);
            $letters = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z]/', ' ', $explode[$i]);  

            if($letters == "All Star Game")
            {
                 echo "Done";
            } 
        }

The $letters variable is equal to All Star Game. But, for some reason, “Done” isn’t being echoed. Could it be something with the preg_replace function that I’m using to separate the numbers from the letters in the string? I notice that when I change the $letters variable to

   $letters = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z]/', '', $explode[$i]);    

and set the rest of the code to:

if($letters == "AllStarGame")
{
     echo "Done";
}

Then, php echoes it out. What’s going on in regards to spaces here?

Answer 1

If you have an input with + 1933 All Star Game + then your regex will convert the text snippet into something like ␣␣␣␣␣␣All␣Star␣Game␣. (The ␣ represents a space).

That’s because you preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z]/', ' ') any non-letter with a space there. So the 1933 will become four spaces, the two surrounding spaces will remain. Which is why your final comparison of $letters == "All Star Game" will never match.