left mid and right strings

[mrgrammar]

I have a string that is always 14 characters. I need to break it into parts.

1st four characters
Next 2 characters
Next 2 characters
Next 2 characters
Next 2 characters
Next 2 characters

EXAMPLE:

$thestring = "abcdefghijklmn";

How do I break the string above into the strings below?

$thestr1 = "abcd";
$thestr2 = "ef";
$thestr3 = "gh";
$thestr4 = "ij";
$thestr5 = "kl";
$thestr6 = "mn";

Mr. Grammar

[LordShryku]

use substr()

[rheroux]

You could write a quick and dirty function to do it.

Something like this:

<?php

function breakstring($string)
{

$str_array = array();

$str1 = substr($string,0,4);
$str_array[] = $str1;
$str2 = substr($string,4,2);
$str_array[] = $str2;
$str3 = substr($string,6,2);
$str_array[] = $str3;
$str4 = substr($string,8,2);
$str_array[] = $str4;
$str5 = substr($string,10,2);
$str_array[] = $str5;
$str6 = substr($string,12,2);
$str_array[] = $str6;

return $str_array;

}

$thestring = "abcdefghijklmn";

$blah = breakstring($thestring);

print_r($blah);

?>

[mrgrammar]

Thanks! Works great!

[drawmack]

I would probably do this:

<?php 

function breakstring($string) 
{ 
    $str_array = array(substr($string,0,4)); 
    for($i=4;$i<14;$i = $i + 2) {
      $str_array[] = substr($string,$i,2); 
    } //end for
    return $str_array; 
} //end break string

$thestring = "abcdefghijklmn"; 

$blah = breakstring($thestring); 

print_r($blah); 

?> 

Which does the same exact thing as the above code but in a lot less lines and without the gratuitious use of variables sucking up the namespace.

[Weedpacket]

You could also do it more compactly:

function breakstring($string)
{
return sscanf($string,'%4s%2s%2s%2s%2s%2s');
}

[rheroux]

drawmack: Yes, you're version is much more elegant. 🙂

Weedpacket: I didn't even know about sscanf. Learn a new thing everyday and all that jazz. 😉

[drawmack]

cool weed no reason to even make it a function.