Explode a string into into 3 or 4-word strings

Question

$str =  "Hello fri3nd, you're looking good today!  What a Great day this is!  How     fancy and cool!";
$pieces = explode(" ",$str, 3);

print_r($pieces);

This gives me:

$pieces[0] = 'Hello';
$pieces[1] = 'fri3nd,';
$pieces[2] = 'you\'re looking good today!  What a Great day this is!  How     fancy and cool!';

How can I explode into every 3 or 4 words?

In your title, you are asking about equal portions, in the question, you ask about every 3 or 4 words. Which one is it and how do you want it to work exactly? — Pekka, May 30 '11 at 07:06
Can u explain a bit more about your requirement and situation? Why do u want to split by 3 or 4 words? if u can explain your requirement, we may point a best solution. — Vijay, May 30 '11 at 07:16
Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/857441/php-explode-over-every-other-word-with-a-twist and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/840807/wondering-how-to-do-php-explode-over-every-other-word — Till, May 30 '11 at 07:19
You can also try [`preg_match_all('~(?:\S+\s*){1,3}(?<!\s)~', $str, $out)`](https://tio.run/##FY49C8IwGIT3/IorCEm0g@LmBx3tWHBwsFJCP4Mxb0lSpIj@9dre8Bw8t1zf9dN0SrI0Y2zlg8MZPK2NITRO720VY6Qh566GIXpq26IlqhCoUmME3DoVoHBx9dyzQui0h/bzlNIbSxplyxHKViiJTMSPjOlG9K5ui5cKZVcoYwT/ieSQXze5X8vPLt5/RXKKci9/PMZyayYNQUp8GNA7bUPhxKLu24c8su80/QE) though the idea from @mickmackusa is very nice and possible more efficient! — bobble bubble, May 19 '23 at 17:01

Yoshi · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-30T07:18:20.603

2

Maybe:?

<?php
$str =  "Hello fri3nd, you're looking good today!  What a Great day this is!  How     fancy and cool!";

$array = array_map(create_function('$a', 'return implode(" ", $a);'), array_chunk(preg_split('/\s+/', $str), 3));
var_dump($array);

Explanation:

first you split the string at any (combined) whitespace: preg_split
then 'split' the resulting array: array_chunk
you then apply implode using array_map on any resulting group of words

edited May 30 '11 at 07:18

answered May 30 '11 at 07:11

Yoshi

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Why use regular expression where you could use `explode(' ',` as well? `Explode` is faster. – Matthieu Napoli May 30 '11 at 07:34
@Matthieu because you'll possibly get empty array entries (see the many spaces near the end of the string) – Yoshi May 30 '11 at 07:37

mickmackusa · Answer 2 · 2023-05-12T19:14:19.253

Make 3 or 4 repetitions of a regex pattern that matches one or more visible characters followed by one or more whitespace characters.

This will produce strings of three/four words, with the exception of the last element which may have less than three/four words depending on the total word count.

Code: (Demo)

$str = "Hello fri3nd, you're looking good today!  What a Great day this is!  How     fancy and cool!";

var_export(
    preg_split('/(?:\S+\K +){3}/', $str)
);

This is an adjustment of this answer which doesn't need to accommodate multiple spaces.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 30 '11 at 07:08

0

Use the php str_split function:-

$pieces = str_split( $str, 3);

answered May 30 '11 at 07:08

Samuel Katz

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71
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1

that doesnt split according to words. it just smashes the whole thing into pieces. explode splits by words, but I'm not able to choose the way it's "exploding" them apart. – ionfish May 30 '11 at 07:10

Explode a string into into 3 or 4-word strings

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