Hi guys

Im new here and was just wondering if you guys could give me a little hand on creating a regex expression

Ok what i want to do is make a regex expression so that it checks if any words in a PHP comment are over 30 Characters as so it can then place in a space in the word so it donst muck up my layout!

this Works for above:

 preg_replace('/([^\s]{30})/', '$1 ', $comment);   -  Places space in 30+ words

 

 

Then after it finds a 30+ word it then checks if it is a URL so it dosnt mess with the links (<a href://"dont-mess-with-url">mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want</a>)

This is what i have so far but dosnt seem to work?

preg_replace('/([^\s]{30})([^<a href:\/\/"][^\.\_a-z\?A-Z0-9\-]*[^">])(?=[^\s])/', '$1 ', $comment);     -   Places space in 30+ words excluding <a href://"URL">

 

Kind regards

Fastmode
 

<?php
$string='Then after it finds a 30+ word it then checks if it is a URL so it dosnt mess with the links <a href="http://dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-">mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want-mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want</a>';
function replfunc($match){
  if (preg_match('/<.*?>/s',$match[0])) {
    return $match[0];
  } else {
    return preg_replace('/\S{10}/','\0 ',$match[0]);
  }
}
$string=preg_replace_callback('/<.*?>|[^\s<>]{30,}/s','replfunc',$string);
echo $string;
?>

---

<?php
$string='Then after it finds a 30+ word it then checks if it is a URL so it dosnt mess with the links <a href="http://dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-">mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want-mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want</a>';
function replfunc($match){
  if (preg_match('/<.*?>/s',$match[0])) {
    return $match[0];
  } else {
    return preg_replace('/\S{10}/','\0 ',$match[0]);
  }
}
$string=preg_replace_callback('/<.*?>|[^\s<>]{30,}/s','replfunc',$string);
echo $string;
?>

If you want to emulate forcing word wrap you might consider replacing the space in the replacement with <wbr> tag instead.

---

 Hey, there and Thanks heaps for your post :)

 

Do you mind if you culd explain what this means???

function replfunc($match){
  if (preg_match('/<.*?>/s',$match[0])) {
    return $match[0];
  } else {
    return preg_replace('/\S{10}/','\0 ',$match[0]);
  }
}
$string=preg_replace_callback('/<.*?>|[^\s<>]{30,}/s','replfunc',$string);

preg_replace_callback PHP function:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-replace-callback.php

The regular expression:

(?s-imx:<.*?>|[^\s<>]{30,})

matches as follows:
 
NODE                     EXPLANATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(?s-imx:                 group, but do not capture (with . matching
                         \n) (case-sensitive) (with ^ and $ matching
                         normally) (matching whitespace and #
                         normally):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  <                        '<'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  .*?                      any character (0 or more times (matching
                           the least amount possible))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  >                        '>'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|                        OR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  [^\s<>]{30,}             any character except: whitespace (\n, \r,
                           \t, \f, and " "), '<', '>' (at least 30
                           times (matching the most amount possible))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
)                        end of grouping
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 

After the initial matches are created they are passed to the function one by one, the function tests if the match is a <> block to be ignored, and if not it will be matched in 10 character long segments, between each segment a space will be inserted ("\0 " means the match plus a space character).  Instead of a space character you might consider a replacement such as "\0<wbr>" to keep from breaking the text yet support word wrapping at 10 character intervals.

Like most solutions, there are other options for accomplishing the same task, here's a similar option that eliminates the extra preg_match operation by using matching capture groups in the initial preg_replace_callback function:

<?php
$string='Then after it finds a 30+ word it then checks if it is a URL so it dosnt mess with the links <a href="http://dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-">mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want-mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want</a>';
function replfunc($match){
  if ($match[1]) {
    return $match[0];
  } else {
    return preg_replace('/\S{10}/','\0<wbr>',$match[0]);
  }
}
$string=preg_replace_callback('/(<.*?>)|[^\s<>]{30,}/s','replfunc',$string);
echo $string;
?>

---

Thanks!! little bit of learning to do XD

 

Hey and one more thing how can i have it so that IF it matches href=" DONT proceed?

Cause i know that [^abc] wont proced when a, b or c are in the text, but how can i check that IF  href=" is in the text as a WHOLE do not procced??

 

Kind regards

Fastmode 

HMTL tags <> are already ignored by the code provided, that would include <a href...> tags, please be more specific on your last question.

---

I meant (New question) how can i check, lets say "potatoes" is in a 30 letter word and IF so, leave it alone but if potatoes isn't in the word add in a space???

How can i achieve this? as [^something] only checks singular characters not a combination of letters (words) eg. potatoes 

In the same question context, assuming you want to ignore <> tags as well as [^\s<>]{30,} strings that contain potatoes:

A non-regex (stristr PHP function) method:

<?php
$string='Then after it finds a 30+ word it then checks if it is a URL so it dosnt mess with the links <a href="http://dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-">something-potatoes-mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want-mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want</a>';
function replfunc($match){
  if ($match[1] || (stristr(strtolower($match[0]),'potatoes') == TRUE)) {
    return $match[0];
  } else {
    return preg_replace('/\S{10}/','\0<wbr>',$match[0]);
  }
}
$string=preg_replace_callback('/(<.*?>)|[^\s<>]{30,}/s','replfunc',$string);
echo $string;
?>

 

---

Ok so isn't there a way of doing it in one nice line like this

/([^\s<>]{25})(and-dosn't=potatoes)/

Once you try to use something like (note the below pattern is quite inefficient):

(<.*?>)|(?:(?!.*potatoes.*)[^\s<>]){30,}

Then you will get matches such as:

$matches Array:
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => <a href="http://dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-">
            [1] => otatoes-mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want-mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want
            [2] => </a>
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => <a href="http://dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-">
            [1] =>
            [2] => </a>
        )

)

To test these patterns with your text:

http://www.myregextester.com/?r=230

---

 OhOk Thanks it works!! but now im trying a different and simpler method and was just wondering if you could give me a little hand on this as well :)

How come this dosnt exclude <a href://bla.com"> when i use this

/([^\s<>]{30})(?=[^\s])/ 

 

thankyou 

Here's a link to that regex tester again with your new pattern (note the explain checkbox that will explain your pattern to you in the results window of the tester:

http://www.myregextester.com/?r=231

[^\S<>]{30} doesn't exclude tags, it was just used in conjunction with a pattern to match tags <.*?> to match text outside of <.*?>

(?=) is a "match but exclude from capture" construct which might not help you with this one.

In the past an expression such as:

(?<!<[^<>]*)pattern(?![^<>]*>)

was recommended to find "pattern" not within <> tags, however since PHP does not support a variable-length (?<!) construct, it will not work for your task.

I suspect that a preg_replace_callback function method is the simplest option available to you.

---

Lol sorry for being such a noob before hahaha.

I finally get it now after a little bit of studying and your help :) so im using this and it works perfectly!

<?php
$string='Then after it finds a 30+ word it then checks if it is a URL so it dosnt mess with the links <a href="http://dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-">mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want-mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want</a>';
function replfunc($match){
  if (preg_match('/<.*?>/s',$match[0])) {
    return $match[0];
  } else {
    return preg_replace('/\S{10}/','\0 ',$match[0]);
  }
}
$string=preg_replace_callback('/<.*?>|[^\s<>]{30,}/s','replfunc',$string);
echo $string;
?>

 

Thanks a million and take care  

To avoid the preg_match function within the replfunc function you can use a capture group ( ) in the preg_replace_callback function:

<?php
$string='Then after it finds a 30+ word it then checks if it is a URL so it dosnt mess with the links <a href="http://dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-dont-mess-with-url-">mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want-mess-with-name-of-link-if-you-want</a>';
function replfunc($match){
  if ($match[1]) {
    return $match[1];
  } else {
    return preg_replace('/\S{10}/','\0 ',$match[0]);
  }
}
$string=preg_replace_callback('/(<.*?>)|[^\s<>]{30,}/s','replfunc',$string);
echo $string;
?>

---