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up vote 2 down vote favorite

I have an array $text:

Array
(
    [0] => "(This is so cool!)"
    [1] => "look at @[48382669205:275:JAY Z] and @[28940545600:27:Beyonc\303\251]'s page"
    [2] => "@[30042869909:32:Van Jones] on Bowe Bergdahl drama"    
)

I want to match delete the @[0-9] text, so my output looks like:

Array
(
    [0] => "(This is so cool!)"
    [1] => "look at JAY Z and Beyonc\303\251's page"
    [2] => "Van Jones on Bowe Bergdahl drama"    
)

I tried a whole bunch of things (preg_replace, etc) but this regex is so tricky I can't get the result I want! Any help is appreciated.

share|improve this question

2 Answers 2

up vote 6 down vote

You can replace /@\[\d+:\d+:([^\]]+)\]/ with \1.

<?php

$array = array(
    "(This is so cool!)",
    "look at @[48382669205:275:JAY Z] and @[28940545600:27:Beyonc\303\251]'s page",
    "@[30042869909:32:Van Jones] on Bowe Bergdahl drama"    
);

$array = preg_replace('/@\[\d+:\d+:([^\]]+)\]/', '\1', $array);

print_r($array);

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => (This is so cool!)
    [1] => look at JAY Z and Beyoncé's page
    [2] => Van Jones on Bowe Bergdahl drama
)

DEMO

Regex Autopsy:

Regular expression visualization

  • @ - a literal at sign
  • \[ - a literal [ character - you need to escape it as [ is a regex character
  • \d+ - a digit matched 1 to infinity times
  • : - a literal colon sign
  • \d+ - a digit matched 1 to infinity times
  • : - a literal colon sign
  • ([^\]]+) - a matching group matching any character that isn't a literal ] character matched 1 to infinity times (meaning it will match until it hits a ]):
  • \] - a literal ] character
share|improve this answer
    
See needed [1] => "look at JAY Z and Beyonc\303\251's page" –  Brotheyura Jun 6 at 7:38
1  
@Brotheyura That's just because escaped characters in " are expanded. –  h2ooooooo Jun 6 at 7:42
    
+1, withdrew my answer as I hadn't read the question correctly. No need to duplicate your great work. :) –  zx81 Jun 6 at 7:44
1  
array_map is not mandatory, preg_replace works with arrays. Nevertheless +1. –  M42 Jun 6 at 7:50
1  
@M42 Good call - there's absolutely no reason for array_map in this code then. –  h2ooooooo Jun 6 at 7:51
up vote 1 down vote

Not that tricky at all

<?php
$array = array(
    "(This is so cool!)",
    "look at @[48382669205:275:JAY Z] and @[28940545600:27:Beyonc\303\251]'s page",
    "@[30042869909:32:Van Jones] on Bowe Bergdahl drama"    
);
$pattern = '#@\[(\d+:){2}(.*?)\]#';

$result[$k] = preg_replace($pattern, "$2", $array);
share|improve this answer
    
This doesn't seem to work: codepad.org/OMf6gjdZ –  Mark M Jun 6 at 7:45
    
oops, fixed that codepad.org/u1jKRwcU –  mleko Jun 6 at 7:48
    
preg_replace can operate on arrays and return an array. Using an array rather than a for loop involves less code and runs faster, hence my -1 –  TerryE Jun 7 at 8:55
    
updated to make use of this feature –  mleko Jun 7 at 10:19

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