[RESOLVED] I need to convert - to amp-pound-045-semi

[ppowell]

Bluntly put, how do I do it?

I tried this but it fails to pad the number properly to produce amp-pound-045-semi:

$asciiDash = '&#' . str_pad('' . ord('-'), 3 - strlen('' . ord('-')), '0', STR_PAD_LEFT) . ';';
print_r($asciiDash); # PRINTS "-" BUT I WANT "-"

Thanx
Phil

[devinemke]

are you simply trying to pad the ASCII dec # with extra 0's? if so:

$asciiDash = '&#' . sprintf('%03s', ord('-')) . ';';

[Weedpacket]

You certainly don't need to work out exactly how many zeros you need to carry out the padding: [man]str_pad[/man] is smart enough to work out the amount of padding required given the length of the supplied string and the desired length.

[ppowell]

Please provide an example of what you're talking about, "smart enough" is, I'm afraid, too vague for me to figure out, sorry.

Phil

[Weedpacket]

Sure, in fact, here are four:

$input = "Alien";
echo str_pad($input, 10);                      // produces "Alien    "
echo str_pad($input, 10, "-=", STR_PAD_LEFT);  // produces "-=-=-Alien"
echo str_pad($input, 10, "_", STR_PAD_BOTH);  // produces "__Alien___"
echo str_pad($input, 6 , "___");              // produces "Alien_"

But devinemke's solution is more concise.

[barand]

or simply

printf ('&#%03s;', ord('-'));

[ppowell]

Sorry, never worked with printf nor sprintf, so the concept of both is Hungarian to me. I read the manual and.. well, it's still Hungarian to me, don't understand it at all.

Weed, your examples are interesting, but I don't understand in light of yours why mine fails.

Phil

[Installer]

nm

[ppowell]

It produces amp-pound-45-semi (sorry I am unable to show you the exact results in PHPBuilder, resolves to "-" each time)..

Phil

[Installer]

...why mine fails.

Because you are subtracting the length of the ord string, which is 2, from 3, leaving 1. Since the string is already longer than that, no padding is done.

Edit: Sorry for the erroneous post earlier.

[ppowell]

I'm sorry I absolutely do NOT understand.

print_r(strlen(ord('-'))); // PRINTS "2" BECAUSE IT'S "45"

So your math is completely confusing me. So what you're saying makes absolutely no sense.

Phil

[Weedpacket]

Well, here's your code.

 $asciiDash = '&#' . str_pad('' . ord('-'), 3 - strlen('' . ord('-')), '0', STR_PAD_LEFT) . ';'; 

Let's walk through it ourselves, shall we?
ord('-') is 45; and we turn that into a string so it's "45".

$asciiDash = '&#' . str_pad("45", 3 - strlen("45"), '0', STR_PAD_LEFT) . ';';

the length of the string "45" is 2.

$asciiDash = '&#' . str_pad("45", 3 - 2, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT) . ';';

And of course 3-2 = 1 (as Installer pointed out; sorry if the maths confuses you - can't be helped I'm afraid).

$asciiDash = '&#' . str_pad("45", 1, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT) . ';';

Now, what does the manual say for [man]str_pad[/man]?

This functions returns the input string padded on the left, the right, or both sides to the specified padding length.

The input string in this case is "45", the padding length is 1, and the string to pad with is "0". Oh, and we'll be padding on the left.
The manual also says

If the value of pad_length is negative or less than the length of the input string, no padding takes place.

As observed, the value of pad_length is one, and the length of the input string is two. So, no padding takes place.

[ppowell]

That is a very illogical methodology if you can't pad if the padding length is less than the string length! That's absurd!

Ok I'm at a loss at this point as to how to accurately pad, else, should I just invent my own str_pad()?

Phil

[devinemke]

ppowell wrote:

Ok I'm at a loss at this point as to how to accurately pad, else, should I just invent my own str_pad()?

is there a specific reason that you don't simply use the code i posted above (or the code barand posted)? i am right in thinking that what you are trying to do is create a 3 digit number with padded 0's if necessary?

[ppowell]

I am trying to create an n-digit string that represents a number with enough padded zeros to constitute a proper ANSI representation of "-", that is, amp-pound-some_number_with_enough_padded_zeros-semi

I would use yours but I don't understand it and thus because of the nature of the potentially dangerous act of poor hyphen substitution (on my part of course) that will cause tclsh to explode and thus bring down an entire web service as a result. Thus, I MUST know what sprintf or printf or whatever does to the nail.

Phil
Phil

[laserlight]

I would use yours but I don't understand it

The solution then is to read the PHP Manual on [man]sprintf/man.

[ppowell]

Thanx, but as I said before, I don't understand the manual on printf nor sprintf. I can't fathom how you can use it to dynamically pad values anymore than str_pad() cannot well-dynamically pad values either. Unless I just plain don't get it.

Phil

[Installer]

I think that you think that the second argument to "str_pad()" is the number of characters to be added to the original string. It's not. It's the length of the result string after the characters have been added.

$original_string = 'abc';
$result_string = str_pad($original_string, 4, 'd', STR_PAD_RIGHT);

// $result_string is "abcd"

[ppowell]

Thanx all.. I guess this was a futile exercise on everyone's part to try to help me understand this, because I never will, no fault of anyone here.. it's just utterly beyond my thinking ability.

So I wrote my own function:

if (!function_exists('pad')) {
 /**
  * Pad a string.  Use str_pad() as default unless the input string value is larger than the amount of padding to take place due to str_pad() rules (PHP needs to update this!!)
  *
  * @access public
  * @param mixed $input (reference)
  * @param int $offset Number of times to repeat padding character
  * @param char $padChar Character to pad with
  * @param int $PAD_CONSTANT (optional) PAD_CONSTANT constant value (e.g. STR_PAD_LEFT, STR_PAD_RIGHT, etc.)
  * @return mixed $paddedString
  * @link http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.str-pad.php
  * @see link regarding usage of str_pad() function
  */
 function &pad(&$input, $offset, $padChar, $PAD_CONTENT = STR_PAD_RIGHT) {
	if ((int)$offset > 0 && (int)$offset >= strlen($input)) return str_pad($input, $offset, $padChar, $PAD_CONSTANT);	// USE str_pad() BY DEFAULT IF RULES APPLY
	if ((int)$offset === 0 || strlen($input) == 0 || !isset($padChar) || strlen($padChar) < 1) return $input;			// NOTHING TO PAD
	switch($PAD_CONSTANT) {
	 case STR_PAD_LEFT:
	  for ($i = 1; $i <= $offset; $i++) $input = "$padChar$input";
	  break;
	 case STR_PAD_RIGHT:
	  for ($i = 1; $i <= $offset; $i++) $input = "$input$padChar";
	  break;
	 case STR_PAD_BOTH:
	  for ($i = 1; $i <= $offset; $i++) $input = "$padChar$input$padChar";
	  break;
	 default: // DO NOTHING
	  break;
	}
	return $input;
 }
}

Works like a charm!! I have now amp-pound-045-semi every time!

Phil

[Installer]

:rolleyes:

PHP needs to update this!!