RegEx in PHP preg_replace: Show all numbers up until any other character

Question

I need to find all numbers in a string up until (but not including) anything that is not a number. If a number occours later on (after an occourance of a non-number-character) then it shouldn't be included either. I am trying with PHP's command preg_replace.

This question helped me to write the following pattern:

.+?(?=[^0-9])

Which though doesn't work in:

preg_replace("/.+?(?=[^0-9])/", "", $entry);

where $entry is my string to search in.

As an example, I could have the following strings:

001Aa.bc
002a
003a4/.
004a(4)
005 (4).string-d
006-34

from which I want to have:

001
002
003
004
005
006

My pattern seems to work in test-sites, like http://gskinner.com/RegExr/. Is my use of the PHP command wrong?

Why don't you just match for numbers? The assertion seems needlessly complex. Or is this part of a bigger regex? — mario, Mar 13 '13 at 16:15
@mario, I don't follow you. I need to get the beginning numbers of the strings just as described. If there's an easy way, please tell me. — Steeven, Mar 13 '13 at 16:30

Sturm · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-13T16:21:27.147

1

Use preg_match()

preg_match(/^(\d)+/, $search_me, $save_string_to_me);

While it's rubular and not explicitly php, I imagine something this simple works the same: http://rubular.com/r/aqZhNC4nJq

edited Mar 13 '13 at 16:21

answered Mar 13 '13 at 16:15

Sturm

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What does `$save_string_to_me` contain? It seems it's an array...? – Steeven Mar 13 '13 at 16:24
http://php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php That array contains the value obtained from the regex, among a few other things. – Sturm Mar 13 '13 at 16:25
You can't read documentation? `[0]` contains the entire match, the rest contain the matches of the capture groups. – Barmar Mar 13 '13 at 16:26
It was an answer to Steeven's question. – Barmar Mar 13 '13 at 16:29
No need to be rude. This works like a charm. Thank's a lot both of you. – Steeven Mar 13 '13 at 16:31

RegEx in PHP preg_replace: Show all numbers up until any other character

1 Answers1