Thodoris wrote: > >> Boyd, Todd M. wrote: >> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: Ashley Sheridan [mailto:ash@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] >>>> Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 1:40 PM >>>> To: Adam Williams >>>> Cc: PHP General list >>>> Subject: Re: removing text from a string >>>> >>>> On Tue, 2008-11-04 at 08:04 -0600, Adam Williams wrote: >>>> >>>>> I have a file that looks like: >>>>> >>>>> 1. Some Text here >>>>> 2. Another Line of Text >>>>> 3. Yet another line of text >>>>> 340. All the way to number 340 >>>>> >>>>> And I want to remove the Number, period, and blank space at the >>>>> >>>> begining >>>> >>>>> of each line. How can I accomplish this? >>>>> >>>>> Opening the file to modify it is easy, I'm just lost at how to >>>>> >>> remove >>> >>>>> the text.: >>>>> >>>>> <?php >>>>> $filename = "results.txt"; >>>>> >>>>> $fp = fopen($filename, "r") or die ("Couldn't open $filename"); >>>>> if ($fp) >>>>> { >>>>> while (!feof($fp)) >>>>> { >>>>> $thedata = fgets($fp); >>>>> //Do something to remove the "1. " >>>>> //print the modified line and \n >>>>> } >>>>> fclose($fp); >>>>> } >>>>> ?> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> I'd go with a regular expression any day for something like this. >>>> Something like: >>>> >>>> "/$[0-9]{1,3}\.\ .*^/g" >>>> >>>> should do what you need. Note the space before the last period. >>>> >>> That would only work for files with 1-999 lines, and will wind up >>> matching the entire line (since you used $ and ^ and a greedy .* >>> inbetween... also... $ is "end-of-line" and ^ is "beginning-of-line" :)) >>> rather than just the "line number" part. I would stick with my >>> originally-posted regex ("/^\d+\.\s/"), but I would modify yours like >>> this if I were to use it instead: >>> >>> "/^[0-9]+\.\ (.*)$/" (What was the "g" modifier for, anyway?) >>> >>> Then, you could grab the capture group made with (.*) and use it as the >>> "clean" data. (It would be group 1 in the match results and "$1" in a >>> preg_replace() call, I believe. Group 0 should be the entire match.) >>> >>> >>> Todd Boyd >>> Web Programmer >>> >>> >> >> >> Personally, I would go this route if you wanted to stick with a regex. >> >> <?php >> >> $lines[] = '01. asdf'; >> $lines[] = '02. 323 asdf'; >> $lines[] = '03.2323 asdf'; >> $lines[] = '04. asdf 23'; >> $lines[] = '05. asdf'; /* tabs used here */ >> $lines[] = '06. asdf'; >> >> foreach ( $lines AS $line ) { >> echo preg_replace('/^[0-9]+\.\s*/', '', $line), "\n"; >> } >> >> ?> >> >> This takes care of all possible issues related to the char after the >> first period. Maybe it is there maybe not. >> >> Could be that it is a tab and not a space. Could even be multiple >> tabs or spaces. >> >> > > There it goes again. > > Every time someone asks a simple question (like the kind it's solved > with a simple trim, ltrim or rtrim) the discussion about which is the > best regular expression for this problem, makes a thread get "elephant" > sized :-) . > > I love this list!! > Your not going to be able to get it with any of the xtrim() functions. you would end up with various nested ltrim() calls that, IMO, would be a nightmare to manage. So, a top to bottom comparison here If $line is this: $line = '01. asdf'; And you use either one of these: A) ltrim(ltrim(ltrim($line, '0123456789'), '.')); B) preg_replace('/^[0-9]+\.\s*/', '', $line); Which do you prefer? A's Pros: Not a regex A's Cons: A little slower then B multiple function calls B's Pros: Slightly faster then A Single Function call B's Cons: Regex -- Jim Lucas "Some men are born to greatness, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene V by William Shakespeare -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
