Here is a example string:
$string = '<strong>Lorem ipsum dolor</strong> sit <img src="test.png" /> amet <span class="test" style="color:red">consec<i>tet</i>uer</span>.';
I want to split the string into array such that the string get split whenever a whitespace is hit or an html tag is hit (ignoring whitespace inside html tag). For Example:
Array
(
[0] => <strong>
[1] => Lorem
[2] => ipsum
[3] => dolor
[4] => </strong>
[5] => sit
[6] => <img src="test.png" />
[7] => amet
[8] => <span class="test" style="color:red">
[9] => consec
[10] => <i>
[11] => tet
[12] => </i>
[13] => uer
[14] => </span>
[15] => .
)
But i am unable to achieve this. I used preg_split to achieve this idea but i think i am mistaken in my regular expressions. Below are some expressions i tried but the results are not what i want.
$chars = preg_split('/(<[^>]*[^\/]>)/i', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
/* Results */
Array
(
[0] => <strong>
[1] => Lorem ipsum dolor
[2] => </strong>
[3] => sit <img src="test.png" /> amet
[4] => <span class="test" style="color:red">
[5] => consec
[6] => <i>
[7] => tet
[8] => </i>
[9] => uer
[10] => </span>
[11] => .
)
and the result of other regular expression is:
$chars = preg_split('/\s+(?![^<>]*>)/x', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
/* Results */
Array
(
[0] => <strong>Lorem
[1] => ipsum
[2] => dolor</strong>
[3] => sit
[4] => <img src="test.png" />
[5] => amet
[6] => <span class="test" style="color:red">consec<i>tet</i>uer</span>.
)
and the result of another expression is (quite close):
$chars = preg_split('/\s*(<[^>]*>)/i', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
/* Results */
Array
(
[0] => <strong>
[1] => Lorem ipsum dolor
[2] => </strong>
[3] => sit
[4] => <img src="test.png" />
[5] => amet
[6] => <span class="test" style="color:red">
[7] => consec
[8] => <i>
[9] => tet
[10] => </i>
[11] => uer
[12] => </span>
[13] => .
)