ereg problem

[Anon]

Hello, I have a string such as this:

jdgfsaj:234:234:234:234:234

and i want to separate in variables by ':'

I used ereg("^{(.)🙁.)🙁.)🙁.)🙁.*)",} $lines[$j], $regs);

but it don't works, could anyone help me?

Thanks

[Anon]

split?

[Anon]

Why don't you use explode? Syntax like this:
$array_of_strings=explode(':', 'jdgfsaj:234:234:234:234:234');

Now you have: $array_of_strings[0]='jdgfsaj', $array_of_strings[0]='234'...etc.
You can do anything you want with these values.

[Anon]

I definitely agree with the previous suggestions to use
explode() if it's really as simple as your example. However,
just to answer your question, the reason it's not working is
that the closure operator '*' is "greedy"--i.e. it matches the
longest possible sequence of characters, not the shortest one.
The key to making this work, then, is to exclude the ':' from
the possible match characters:

ereg("^{([:])🙁[:])} etc...

[Anon]

Or just add the U (Ungreedy) option. Nice and easier, but probably a bit lazy

[Anon]

That's only for PCRE, isn't it?

[Anon]

yes, afaik greediness is only for pcre