Preg replace help

[SJshah]

I need a php function including a preg replace line (or two) which will:
- delete all brackets, apostrophe's, special characters
- replace numbers with spaces
- delete all words less than 3 characters
- trim the spaces

Unfortunately I'm a noob in php, and an uber-noob with regex.

Is there anyone here who can help me out?

SJshah Reviewed by SJshah on 8th Aug 2010. Preg replace help I need a php function including a preg replace line (or two) which will: - delete all brackets, apostrophe's, special characters - replace numbers with spaces - delete all words less than 3 characters - trim the spaces Unfortunately I'm a noob in php, and an uber-noob with regex. Is there anyone here who can help me out? Rating: 5

[chems]

lol good luck brother

try to read some php ebooks

i m reading 500 pages one

[Hyperz]

<?php

function clean($txt)
{
    // remove everything that is not a word char, whitespace or a number
    $result = preg_replace('/[^\w\d\s]/', '', $txt);
    // replace numbers and trim spaces
    $result = preg_replace('/(\d+|[ ]{2,})/', ' ', $result);
    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/\b[\w]{1,3}\b/', '', $result);
    
    return $result;
}

?>

Try that. Not sure if it works, never used regex in PHP.

[SJshah]

Thanks Hyperz, its almost the way I want it

Could you make it keep all hyphens "-" in tact and also trim any extra spaces?

[Hyperz]

By spaces do you mean all whitespace (incl. newlines etc)?

[SJshah]

I mean spaces " ", like double/triple spaces and extra spaces on the ends of the string.
There are no new lines.

[Mr Happy]

I mean spaces " ", like double/triple spaces and extra spaces on the end.
There are no new lines.

Doesn't that mean you'll end up with one long line of string like:

Doesntthatmeanyoullendwithlonglinestringlike

[SJshah]

I mean any extra spaces, so if there is a double/triple space there it will be converted into a single space. Since the regex deletes all the numbers and words less than 3 chars, it leaves loads of extra spaces in once the string is returned.

I already tried

    $result = trim($result, " "); 

but it only removes the extra spaces on the ends

[Hyperz]

<?php

function clean($txt)
{
    // remove everything that is not a word, _, -, whitespace or a number
    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/([^\w\d\s\-]+|\b\w{1,3}\b)/', '', $txt);
    // replace numbers with a space
    $result = preg_replace('/\d+/', ' ', $result);
    // trim spaces
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]{2,}/', ' ', $result);
    // trim spaces at the end or beginning of lines
    $result = preg_replace('/[ ]*(\r{0,1}\n)[ ]*/', '$1', $result);
    
    return $result;
}

?>

Had a little mistake in the other one too. Let me know if this does the trick.

Edit:
Added trimming of EOL spaces.

[SJshah]

^ that fixes the spaces prob

but now it doesn't delete the words less than 3 chars from the string :/


edit: looks like you accidentally edited out this line:

    // remove words <= 3 chars
    $result = preg_replace('/\b[\w]{1,3}\b/', '', $result); 

added it back in, looks like it works perfectly

thanks m8