[SOLVED] Extracting matches after colons from a predictably formatted string

Extracting matches after colons from a predictably formatted string

In perl regex we can extract the matched variables, ex below.

# extract hours, minutes, seconds
$time =~ /(\d\d):(\d\d):(\d\d)/; # match hh:mm:ss format
$hours = $1;
$minutes = $2;
$seconds = $3;

How to do this in PHP?

$subject = "E:contact@customer.com I:100955";
$pattern = "/^E:/";
if (preg_match($pattern, $subject)) {
    echo "Yes, A Match";
}

How to extract the email from there? (We can explode it and get it...but would like a method to get it directly through regex)?

Solution

Try using the named subpattern syntax of preg_match:

<?php

$str = 'foobar: 2008';

// Works in PHP 5.2.2 and later.
preg_match('/(?<name>\w+): (?<digit>\d+)/', $str, $matches);

// Before PHP 5.2.2, use this:
// preg_match('/(?P<name>\w+): (?P<digit>\d+)/', $str, $matches);

print_r($matches);

?>

Output:

 Array (
     [0] => foobar: 2008
     [name] => foobar
     [1] => foobar
     [digit] => 2008
     [2] => 2008 )