PHP Get String within [[ ]] brackets to array

Question

I am writing some snippet script with PHP,

I have these kind of string variable

 $msg="Dear [[5]]
    We wish to continue the lesson with the [[6]]";

i need to grab 5 and 6 from this $msg and assign to an array ex array(5,6)

because those are the snippets numbers, any one know how to do that using PHP

thank you for help

Foreseeing your next step, it might be easier to use preg_replace_callback to find and substitute these markers in one step. — user1233508
– user1233508, Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 9:31

João Silva · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-18 09:28:14Z

4

Use preg_match_all:

$msg = "Dear [[5]] We wish to continue the lesson with the [[6]]";
preg_match_all("/\[\[(\d+)\]\]/", $msg, $matches);

If there is a match, $matches[1] will then contain an array with the matched numbers:

Array
(
    [0] => 5
    [1] => 6
)

DEMO.

answered Sep 18, 2012 at 9:28

João Silva

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4 Comments

Suneth Kalhara Over a year ago

I applied this to my script my string was "test closingdear [[12]]" and it gaves me this kind of array in var dump array(2) { [0]=> array(1) { [0]=> string(6) "[[12]]" } [1]=> array(1) { [0]=> string(2) "12" } } there is extra items, any idea what is going here :)

João Silva Over a year ago

@SunethKalhara: Can you give me the exact line you executed? You need to consider only the first position of the resulting array.

Suneth Kalhara Over a year ago

$rulz="test closingdear [[12]]"; preg_match_all("/[[(\d+)]]/", $rulz, $matches); var_dump($matches);

João Silva Over a year ago

@SunethKalhara: You didn't escape the [ and ] like in my example. They are special regex characters. Also, you need to consider only $matches[1]. Check this demo ideone.com/IbHhI.

Night2 · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-18 09:31:39Z

1

Here is what you want:

<?php

$msg = "Dear [[5]]
 We wish to continue the lesson with the [[6]]";

preg_match_all('/\[\[([0-9+])\]\]/', $msg, $array);

$array = $array[1];

print_r($array);

?>

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => 5
    [1] => 6
)

answered Sep 18, 2012 at 9:31

Night2

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4 Comments

João Silva Over a year ago

I don't really see how's this any different from my answer.

Night2 Over a year ago

I was typing this when there was no answer :)

Suneth Kalhara Over a year ago

$array = $array[0]; is worked for me, do you know why is that :)

Night2 Over a year ago

Because preg_match places all found in index[0] which isn't what you want and from that each () of pattern will be stored in other indexes starting from 1. In this case in our pattern, we have only 1 parentheses so the index[1] would be where the found data will be stored ...

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