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I need to split a string into a nested array something like this. Small subset of the actual data

  • There is no fixed size, code could be aaa100 and bbbbbbbb100
  • No fixed char to split on

A similar problem is with converting file path to array but I dont have anything like / to split on.

Use case:

Product import with a few thousand products. Each product code is made up with something like the following:

xxx product type
yyy size
zzz colour

So you have codes like xxxx, xxxxyy, xxxxzz or xxxxyyzz. 

AAA100B // product type AAA with size 100 and colour blue
AAA200B // product type AAA with size 200 and colour blue
AAA100G // product type AAA with size 100 and colour green
BBB100B // product type BBB with size 100 and colour blue

Some do not have colour, others don't have size. Possible that some will not have 'matches' and just be a lone code.

Edit

The last char (or two) is normally a colour. Colours can be any of the following. (Colour code will never anywhere except the end of the string)

BK, GY
B, G, O, P, R, S

numbers are assumed to be the size, if the number is in the form 00-00 its lenght/width, else its a single size 00

Edit

Rough start to the problem, virtually there (expand and merge are part of the framework so just hacked them in there) http://codepad.viper-7.com/Wp19g2

share|improve this question
    
There has to be some pattern to the input .. is it always "Letters""Numbers""Letters"? –  Explosion Pills Dec 6 '12 at 23:14
    
I linked a sample of actual data pastebin.com/BLPVfvBj. Only real pattern is 'product-type' - 'size' - 'colour', but colour and size are not always there. There is also no separator between them always –  dogmatic69 Dec 6 '12 at 23:19
1  
Well there has to be a way to know when product-type ends and size (or color) begins –  Explosion Pills Dec 6 '12 at 23:20
    
generally the size would be numeric while the rest is alpha. The colours seem to always be the last char (or two in some cases like BK for black as B is blue). –  dogmatic69 Dec 6 '12 at 23:21
    
If you're saying that product-type can be followed immediately by color and that both are alpha and there is no pattern to color, then this is kind of impossible –  Explosion Pills Dec 6 '12 at 23:22

1 Answer 1

up vote 0 down vote

Hmm, I guess the obvious (yet somewhat inefficient) way would be to take your code string, loop through the letters till you reach a number (recording all the letters up to that point as your product type), when you reach a number record that value and every number after it till you reach a letter again, and begin recording the color. This, of course, assumes that the color and product type does not include numbers!

$product_size = ""; $product_type = ""; $product_color = "";
for ($i = 0; $i < strlen ( $code ); $i++ ) {
     if ( !is_numeric ( $code [ $i ] ) ) { 
          if ( $product_size == "" ) $product_type .= $code [ $i ];
          else $product_color .= $code [ $i ]
     } else $product_size .= $code [ $i ];
}

Its a good design choice to have a separator though. One problem with my solution is that if there is no product size then it will never record a color.

share|improve this answer
    
This doesn't work for the codes with no size between the type and color. –  Barmar Dec 6 '12 at 23:40
    
Yup. I'm not sure how one can overcome that hurdle without a separator or a good idea at how we can differentiate between the blocks. –  Chris McGuire Dec 6 '12 at 23:45
    
That's the problem. Until the OP provides enough information to disambiguate, there's not much point in posting answers. –  Barmar Dec 6 '12 at 23:46
    
Unfortunately I do not have a choice in the separator matter. Just using what I have got. I have added a bit more detail regarding the colours which are pretty constant. –  dogmatic69 Dec 7 '12 at 0:08
    
Will the last color always be one or two letters? –  Chris McGuire Dec 7 '12 at 19:04

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