Stripping characters/whitespace using PHP

[bentleybloke]

I'm attempting a bit of php and wondered if someone could point me in the right direction.

$return = trim(ereg_replace(' +',' ',preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9.\s]/','',strtolower($input))));

This transforms to lowercase, removes punctuation with the exception of '.' and removes multiple/leading/ending spaces.

I was wondering if it is possible to leave '-' IF it is in a number e.g. 1800-2?

Any help greatfully received.

[acompton]

What does the input look like?

[Duncan Rounding]

Your input is not really a number so you would need to check the preceding character before a - to check if it was a number.

You can of course also simply exclude - from the function which may help...

$return = trim(ereg_replace(' +',' ',preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9.\s-\s]/','',strtolower($input))));

[acompton]

One way would be to protect the number-range occurences before applying the main strip, then reversing the procedure:
I've replaced the '-' with a 'z' to do this

$input = ereg_replace('/([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)/', '/$1z$2/', $input);
$input = trim(ereg_replace(' +', ' ', preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9.\s]/', '', strtolower($input))));
$return = ereg_replace('/([0-9]+)z([0-9]+)/', '/$1-$2/', $input); 

[Duncan Rounding]

I'm no php guru but I couldn't get Alan's code to give the right result but this did (perhaps they should both work):

$input = ereg_replace('([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)', '\\1zzzz\\2', $input);
$input = trim(ereg_replace(' +', ' ', preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9.\s]/', '', strtolower($input))));
$return = ereg_replace('([0-9]+)zzzz([0-9]+)', '\\1-\\2', $input); 

I changed the z to zzzz just in case you have a z in the input string - chances are you'll never have zzzz though.

[acompton]

I'm no php guru but I couldn't get Alan's code to give the right result

Ooops, I tested using the .NET regex class rather than PHP. I glibly assumed the two implementations of regular expression should be the same.

[Duncan Rounding]

Here's a very lightweight standalone PHP test environment that I find very useful:
http://www.zachsaw.co.cc/?pg=quickph...ester_debugger

[acompton]

* high-fives Duncan *

[malbro]

Here's a very lightweight standalone PHP test environment that I find very useful:
http://www.zachsaw.co.cc/?pg=quickph...ester_debugger

for me that has to be one of the best links this year, thanks Duncan

[bentleybloke]

Thank you to you both. Just the job!