Filter out a row if letter is repeated 3 times

[hatching]

I have a list with all possible combinations. How would I take out a row if there are 3 of the same letters repeated?

Example:
Z4 Z4 G4
Z4 Z4 J1
Z4 Z4 J2
Z4 Z4 J3
Z4 Z4 J4
Z4 Z4 K1
Z4 Z4 Z1 - Remove this

  function showCombinations($string, $traits, $i)
  {
      if ($i >= count($traits))
          echo trim($string) . "<br>";
      else {
          foreach ($traits[$i] as $trait)
              showCombinations("$string $trait", $traits, $i + 1);
      }

  }

  $traits = array(array("D1", "D2", "D3", "D4", "F1", "F2", "F3", "F4", "G1", "G2", "G3", "G4", "J1", "J2", "J3", "J4", "K1", "K2", "K3", "K4", "M1", "M2", "M3", "M4", "N1", "N2", "N3", "N4", "P1", "P2", "P3", "P4", "R1", "R2", "R3", "R4", "S1", "S2", "S3", "S4", "T1", "T2", "T3", "T4", "V1", "V2", "V3", "V4", "Z1", "Z2", "Z3", "Z4"), array("D1", "D2", "D3", "D4", "F1", "F2", "F3", "F4", "G1", "G2", "G3", "G4", "J1", "J2", "J3", "J4", "K1", "K2", "K3", "K4", "M1", "M2", "M3", "M4", "N1", "N2", "N3", "N4", "P1", "P2", "P3", "P4", "R1", "R2", "R3", "R4", "S1", "S2", "S3", "S4", "T1", "T2", "T3", "T4", "V1", "V2", "V3", "V4", "Z1", "Z2", "Z3", "Z4"), array("D1", "D2", "D3", "D4", "F1", "F2", "F3", "F4", "G1", "G2", "G3", "G4", "J1", "J2", "J3", "J4", "K1", "K2", "K3", "K4", "M1", "M2", "M3", "M4", "N1", "N2", "N3", "N4", "P1", "P2", "P3", "P4", "R1", "R2", "R3", "R4", "S1", "S2", "S3", "S4", "T1", "T2", "T3", "T4", "V1", "V2", "V3", "V4", "Z1", "Z2", "Z3", "Z4"));

  showCombinations('', $traits, 0);

[sfullman]

how bout just this?

$string='z4 z4 z1';
$before=strlen($string);
$after=strlen(preg_replace('/z/i','',$before));

if($after+3 == $before){
   //go ahead and delete the row!
}

btw, you could do a query similar to that in SQL to find the rows - make sure the field is indexed..

Samuel

[Drakla]

A pattern to match three letters the same followed by a digit and space would be (\w)\d(\s\1\d){2}

So you'd be better off with

if (preg_match('/(\w)\d(\s\1\d){2}/', $string))
{
    // get rid!
}