split a string on semicolons taking into account strings and escaped quotes or semicolons

Question

I'm still trying to figure out a way to take into account escaped quotes like "test\";nosplit" or 'test\';nosplit'

So far I have something like this:

preg_split('#(^;)|(;$)|(?<!["\'\\]);#', $str_to_split);

But it's not even working on something as simple as: test; 1; 2; '34;34'; wtvr

I want it to split on these:

    v  v  v        v
test; 1; 2; '34;34'; wtvr

    v  v v            v
test; 1;2; '34\'34;34'; wtvr 

    v  v v            v
test; 1;2; "34\"34;34"; wtvr

    v  v v            v
test; 1;2; '34\"34;34'; wtvr 

    v  v v            v
test; 1;2; "34\'34;34"; wtvr

    v  v v                    v
test; 1;2; "3 4 \' 3  4 ; 3 4"; wtvr

How can I make this work?

Not sure if this is "cheating" but I would first protect semicolons in quotes, then split normally, and finally put them back. — Floris, Mar 03 '13 at 01:33
@Floris Are you forgetting about `test; 1;2; '34\\'34;34'; wtvr` and `test; 1;2; '34\\\'34;34'; wtvr` — qwertymk, Mar 03 '13 at 02:00

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 03 '13 at 01:41

0

Why not use str_getcsv?

var_dump(str_getcsv("test; 1; 2; '34;34'; wtvr",";","'"));

http://ideone.com/JoFkr7#

answered Mar 03 '13 at 01:41

aquinas

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This only works if all of the strings are single quotes, but I want to be able to use double too. – qwertymk Mar 03 '13 at 01:50
Hmm...ok, but it seems like you're reinventing CSV, but with different rules. :) – aquinas Mar 03 '13 at 01:54

split a string on semicolons taking into account strings and escaped quotes or semicolons

1 Answers1