How do I process the largest match first in PHP?
- by animuson
Ok, so I tried searching around first but I didn't exactly know how to word this question or a search phrase. Let me explain.
I have data that looks like this:
<!-- data:start -->
<!-- 0:start -->
<!-- 0:start -->0,9<!-- 0:stop -->
<!-- 1:start -->0,0<!-- 1:stop -->
<!-- 2:start -->9,0<!-- 2:stop -->
<!-- 3:start -->9,9<!-- 3:stop -->
<!-- 4:start -->0,9<!-- 4:stop -->
<!-- 0:stop -->
<!-- 1:start -->
<!-- 0:start -->1,5<!-- 0:stop -->
<!-- 1:start -->1,6<!-- 1:stop -->
<!-- 2:start -->3,6<!-- 2:stop -->
<!-- 3:start -->3,8<!-- 3:stop -->
<!-- 4:start -->4,8<!-- 4:stop -->
<!-- 1:stop -->
<!-- 2:start -->
<!-- 0:start -->0,7<!-- 0:stop -->
<!-- 1:start -->1,7<!-- 1:stop -->
<!-- 2:stop -->
<!-- data:stop -->
So it's basically a bunch of points. Here is the code I'm currently using to try and parse it so that it would create an array like so:
Array (
0 => Array (
0 => "0,9",
1 => "0,0",
2 => "9,0",
3 => "9,9",
4 => "0,9"
),
1 => Array (
0 => "1,5",
1 => "1,6",
2 => "3,6",
3 => "3,8",
4 => "4,8"
),
2 => Array (
0 => "0,7",
1 => "1,7"
)
)
However, it is returning an array that looks like this:
Array (
0 => "0,9",
1 => "0,0",
2 => "9,0"
)
Viewing the larger array that I have on my screen, you see that it's setting the first instance of that variable when matching. So how do I get it to find the widest match first and then process the insides. Here is the function I am currently using:
function explosion($text) {
$number = preg_match_all("/(<!-- ([\w]+):start -->)\n?(.*?)\n?(<!-- \\2:stop -->)/s", $text, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
if ($number == 0) return $text;
else unset($item);
foreach ($matches as $item) if (empty($data[$item[2]])) $data[$item[2]] = $this->explosion($item[3]);
return $data;
}
I'm sure it will be something stupid and simple that I've overlooked, but that just makes it an easy answer for you I suppose.
