I'm trying to convert a slash-delimited string to an array, but I'm
wary of null elements that I want to eliminate. I'm frustrated with
explode(), array_unique(), and array_pop(), and I'm wondering if
there's a better way. I'm only interested in unique array elements.

Here's what I've got

$a = "10/20/30"
should become an array where
$b[0] = 10, $b[1] = 20, and $b[2] = 30.

Now here's the fun part. Often my arrays will have
$a = "10//"
I'd like that to become $b[0] = 10 and that's all.

So I tried applying array_unique() to explode("/", $a)
but you have to be careful about how many elements
are returned. Then I tried to use array_pop() to drop
the last element if it's empty, but array_pop returns
a scalar string when there's only one element left.
So when you use $b = array_pop($q), sometimes
there is no $b[0].

Does anyone have any good ideas?

Thanks,
M. Katz

On 3 Feb 2004 14:16:36 -0800, MKatz843@onebox.com (M. Katz) wrote:
[color=blue]
>I'm trying to convert a slash-delimited string to an array, but I'm
>wary of null elements that I want to eliminate.[/color]
[color=blue]
>I'm only interested in unique array elements.
>
>$a = "10/20/30"
> should become an array where
> $b[0] = 10, $b[1] = 20, and $b[2] = 30.
>
>Now here's the fun part. Often my arrays will have
>$a = "10//"
> I'd like that to become $b[0] = 10 and that's all.[/color]

<pre>
<?php
$a = "10/20/30//30";
$b = array_unique(array_filter(explode("/", $a), "strlen"));
var_dump($b);
?>
</pre>

array(3) {
[0]=>
string(2) "10"
[1]=>
string(2) "20"
[2]=>
string(2) "30"
}

--
Andy Hassall <andy@andyh.co.uk> / Space: disk usage analysis tool
<http://www.andyh.co.uk> / <http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space>

M. Katz wrote:[color=blue]
> $a = "10/20/30"
> should become an array where
> $b[0] = 10, $b[1] = 20, and $b[2] = 30.
>
> Now here's the fun part. Often my arrays will have
> $a = "10//"
> I'd like that to become $b[0] = 10 and that's all.[/color]
(snip)[color=blue]
> Does anyone have any good ideas?[/color]

Maybe something like this?

<?php
function explode_without_nulls($separator, $string) {
$retval = array();
$x = explode($separator, $string);
foreach ($x as $y) {
if (!empty($y)) $retval[]=$y;
}
return $z;
}

// usage example
print_r(explode_without_nulls("10///20///30/////////"));
?>


Output is

Array
(
[0] => 10
[1] => 20
[2] => 30
)
--
--= my mail box only accepts =--
--= Content-Type: text/plain =--
--= Size below 10001 bytes =--

Pedro Graca <hexkid@hotpop.com> wrote in message news:<bvp84f$v4geq$1@ID-203069.news.uni-berlin.de>...[color=blue]
> M. Katz wrote:[color=green]
> > $a = "10/20/30"
> > should become an array where
> > $b[0] = 10, $b[1] = 20, and $b[2] = 30.
> >
> > Now here's the fun part. Often my arrays will have
> > $a = "10//"
> > I'd like that to become $b[0] = 10 and that's all.[/color]
> (snip)[color=green]
> > Does anyone have any good ideas?[/color]
>
> Maybe something like this?
>
> <?php
> function explode_without_nulls($separator, $string) {
> $retval = array();
> $x = explode($separator, $string);
> foreach ($x as $y) {
> if (!empty($y)) $retval[]=$y;
> }
> return $z;
> }
>
> // usage example
> print_r(explode_without_nulls("10///20///30/////////"));
> ?>
>
>
> Output is
>
> Array
> (
> [0] => 10
> [1] => 20
> [2] => 30
> )[/color]

You can use *preg_split*:

[SNIP]

$str = '10//';
$myArray = preg_split("|/|",$str,-1,PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
print_r($myArray);

[/SNIP]

--
Cheers,
Rahul Anand