[RESOLVED] Regex help and complex (for me) variable string

[Bilbozilla]

Hello all,

I have generated a sql command that appears as follows:

$s = "INSERT INTO temp_table (uid, value) VALUES ( 'mondo_user', 12),
 ( 'mondo_user', 14), ( 'mondo_user', 9),  ( 'other_user', 14),  

 ( 'mondo_user', Submit),";

The string is generated automatically, but in the process of my algorithms, the final

,   ( 'mondo_user', Submit),

string needs to come out. As you can see, I can't just count back a fixed number of spaces, as the user name can change, as does the number of record entries.

I am looking for the regex command that will truncate the final parenthetical set of values, along with the commas before and after it so that it becomes a legitimate SQL statement. Can regex work backwards?

Do you have any guidance? I've been looking through tutorials and cannot come to terms with this. Thanks.

[NogDog]

Untested (the "$" and the end of the pattern anchors it to the end of the string):

$s = preg_replace('#,\s*\([^)]*\)\s*,\s*$#', '', $s);

[Bilbozilla]

What an elegant solution. Thanks. Now I see this.