Question

Please forgive me if this question appears too cheap.

I have this line:

preg_match_all($pattern, $_GET['id'], $arr);

When you pass a value with space during a search, the value breaks once a space is encountered.

For instance:

36 2543541284

Notice a space between 6 and 2. In a situation similar to this, only 36 is displayed.

The reminder of digits after space are ignored. This is giving users, “no data found” message.

I have tried using urlencode to add 20% but no luck.

preg_match_all($pattern, rawurlencode($_GET[id]), $arr);

I have also tried urlencode but to no avail.

What am I possibly doing wrong?

function format($matches)
{
    return $matches[1][0].(strlen($matches[2][0])>0?$matches[2][0]:" ").$matches[3][0].(strlen($matches[4][0])>0?"  ".$matches[4][0]:"");
}

// CONSTRUCT A REGULAR EXPRESSION
$pattern
= '/'         // regex delimiter
. '('         // START of a capture group
. '\d{2}'     // exactly two digits
. ')'         // END of capture group
. '('         // START SECOND capture group
. '[ND]?'     // letters "D" OR "N" in any order or number - This is optional
. ')'         // END SECOND capture group
. '('         // START THIRD capture group
. '\d*'       // any number of digits
. ')'         // END THIRD capture group
. '('         // START FOURTH capture group
. 'GG'        // the letters "GG" EXACTLY
. '[\d]*'     // any number of digits
. ')'         // END THIRD capture group
. '?'         // make the LAST capture group OPTIONAL
. '/'         // regex delimiter
;


 preg_match_all($pattern, rawurlencode($_GET[id]), $arr);

// REFORMAT the array
$str = format($arr);

// show what we did to the data
echo '<pre>' . PHP_EOL;
echo '1...5...10...15...20...' . PHP_EOL;
echo $pattern;
echo PHP_EOL;
//Are we getting what we asked for? This is a test. We will comment out all 6 lines if we are happy with output of our REFORMATTING.
echo $str;
echo PHP_EOL;

Answer 1

Your regex as it stands will not match two digits followed by a space and further digits.
If you want it to, you could change [ND]? to [\sND]?, although this would also allow a space if the string wasn’t all digits.

You need to specify the rules precisely if you want further advice on the regex.