Reg Expression Preg_Split help

[Kenderized]

hello all im trying to do the following
break a string up into array elements using brackets as start and end delimiters but the pattern keeps giving me the whole string in a single element array and not EACH bracketed value in its own array element as i want, any ideas.

$string_vars="[0][297][12][message blah blah]";

$holder=preg_split"/^{[\$/",$string_vars,"PCRE_UNGREEDY");}
var_dump($holder);

GETS ME:
array(1) {
[0]=>
string(38) "[0][297][12][message blah blah ]"

TRYING TO GET:
array(4){
[0]=>
string(3)"[0]"
[1]=>
string(5)"[297]"
[2]=>
string(4)"[12]"
[3]=>
string(20)"[messages blah blah ]"

any ideas??
AJ

[sidney]

do you need the brackets returned in data and is that lay out of input data eg are there any other type of formating ,whitespace etc

[Kenderized]

Im directly creating the data and not putting in any thing like that. just the brackets there may be spaces and double quotes and equal sign "=" but there shouldnt be any \t or \n in there

AJ

[Kenderized]

sorry last post wasnt clear,,,yes I need the Brackets returned in the array elements, and there may be white space, quotes, and the equal sign "=" as well.

AJ

[Kenderized]

EUREKA,

ok I figured it out, but had to go about it differently, I used preg_match_all and saved the matches to an array vs using preg_split here it the what and why:

FOR SOME REASON:

This works:
preg_match_all("/[{1}[^{[(.+)]*]{1}/",} $string_vars, $holder);

But this doesnt:
preg_split("/[{1}[^{[(.+)]*]{1}/",} $string_vars, $holder);

who knows

thanks for the help anyway

AJ

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by Kenderized
who knows

I do; preg_split would take all the bits that make up that expression, and delete them, breaking the string into pieces and returning an array of all the bits that didn't match the pattern.

So you should have been preg_split()ting on the bits that weren't what you wanted to keep, viz.

/\][^\[]*\[/

Just checked, and I see you still wanted the []; well, you could put them back afterwards, or you could use assertions

/(?<=\])[^\[]*(?=\[)/

[Kenderized]

AHHH ha...gotcha
I was thinking in terms of preg_match while using preg_split, thinking that the found matches would be put into their own element. Didnt know that about the internals of preg_split ..THANKS for that I'll remember..

AJ