phpregexstringregex-lookaroundstext-extraction

Find value before a searched value in a delimited string

I have the following text string: "Gardening,Landscaping,Football,3D Modelling"

I need PHP to pick out the string before the phrase, "Football".

So, no matter the size of the haystack, the code will always scan for the phrase 'Football' and retrieve the text immediately before it.

Here is my attempt so far:

$haystack = "Swimming,Astronomy,Gardening,Rugby,Landscaping,Football,3D Modelling";
$find = "Football";
$string = magicFunction($find, $haystack);
echo $string; // $string would = 'Landscaping'
Solution 
  • $terms = explode(',', $array);
$index = array_search('Football', $terms);
$indexBefore = $index - 1;

if (!isset($terms[$indexBefore])) {
    trigger_error('No element BEFORE');
} else {
    echo $terms[$indexBefore];
}