preg split unsure why not functioning.

[jason_m]

i am attempting to split a comma delimited tag field within my blog table. for some reason it is not splitting.

a sample tags would be:
mytag1,mytag2
ThisOnlyHas1,

<?php $host="myhost"; // Host name 
$username="myuser"; // Mysql username 
$password="mypassword"; // Mysql password 
$db_name="mydb"; // Database name 
$tbl_name="myblog"; // Table name
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect"); 
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");

if (!is_null($id)){
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM ' .$tbl_name. ' order by id desc limit ' .(($id -1)*3). ',3;'; 
}elseif (!is_null($perma_string)){
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM ' .$tbl_name. ' where `title` like \'%' .$perma_string. '%\';'; 
}elseif (!is_null($tag_string)){
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM ' .$tbl_name. ' where `tag` like \'%' .$tag_string. '%\';'; 
}


$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error()); 
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result); 
if ($num_rows==0){
$view_db .='<tr><th colspan="4" align="left"><p id="ES">&#248;</p>';
$view_db .='</th></tr>';
$view_db .='<tr><th colspan="2" align="left">';
}else{

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{

$view_db .='<tr><th colspan="2" align="left"><a class="title_link" target="_blank" href="?perma_link=';

$title_link='';
$my_split=preg_split('/\s/',$row['title']);
if (sizeof($my_split)>0){

for($i=0;$i<=sizeof($my_split);$i+=1){
if($i>0 && $i<sizeof($my_split)){

$title_link.='+'.$my_split[$i];
}else{
$title_link.=$my_split[$i];
}
}
}else{
$title_link=$row['title'];
}

$tag_link='';
$sPattern = '/\s*/m'; 
$sReplace = '';
$tags_fetch=$row['tag'];
$tags_cleaned=preg_replace( $sPattern, $sReplace, $tags_fetch);
$my_split2=preg_split('/\,/',$tags_cleaned); //this should be splitting it


if (sizeof($my_split2)>0){

for($i=0;$i<=sizeof($my_split2);$i+=1){
/*echo 'my split:';
echo '<br>';
echo $my_split2[i];
echo '<br>';*/
if($i<sizeof($my_split2)-1){
/*echo $tags_cleaned;
echo '<br>';
echo 'if:<br>';
echo 'i: '.$i.'<br>';
 echo 'size : '.sizeof($my_split2).'<br>';
 echo 'split i :'.$my_split2[i];
echo '<br>';*/
$tag_link.='<a class="blog" href="http://www.abcdef.com/blog/index.php?tag='.$my_split2[i].'">'.$my_split2[i].'</a>, ';

}else{
/*echo $tags_cleaned;
echo '<br>';
echo 'else:<br>';
echo 'i: '.$i.'<br>';
 echo 'size : '.sizeof($my_split2).'<br>';
 echo 'split i :'.$my_split2[i];
echo '<br>';*/
$tag_link.='<a class="blog" href="http://www.abcdef.com/blog/index.php?tag='.$my_split2[i].'">'.$my_split2[i].'</a>';

}

}
}else{

}



$view_db .= $title_link;
$view_db .= '">';
$view_db .= $row['title'];
$view_db .= '</a>';
$view_db .= '</th><th style="height:100%!important" colspan="2" align="right">';
$view_db .=$row['postdate'];
$view_db .= ' ';
$view_db .=$row['posttime'];
$view_db .= '</th></tr><tr><th class="body_text" colspan="4" align="left">';//<p style="color:#585858">';
$view_db .=$row['body']; 
$view_db .='</tr>';

$view_db .='<tr><th colspan="4" align="left">By:<a href="mailto:';
$view_db .=$row['user'];
$view_db .='@abcdef.com">';
$view_db .=$row['user'];
$view_db .='</a></th></tr>';

$view_db .='<tr><th colspan="4" align="left">Tags:';
$view_db .=$tag_link;
$view_db .='</th></tr>';

$view_db .='<tr><th colspan="2" align="left">';
$view_db .='<tr><th colspan="4" align="center"><hr></th></tr>';

$crap_catch=$row['title'].$row['postdate'].$row['posttime'].$row['user'].$row['body'];
$counter=$counter+1;
}
}

$view_db .='<tr>';

if (!is_null($perma_string)){
$title_link='';
$my_split=preg_split('/\s/',$perma_string);

if (sizeof($my_split)>0){

for($i=0;$i<=sizeof($my_split);$i+=1){
if($i>0 && $i<sizeof($my_split)){

$title_link.='+'.$my_split[$i];
}else{
$title_link.=$my_split[$i];
}
}
}


$view_db.='<th colspan="2" align="left">';
$view_db .='<a name="fb_share" type="button_count" share_url="http://www.abcdef.com/index.php?perma_link='.$title_link.'"></a> ';
$view_db .='<a class="DiggThisButton DiggCompact" href="http://digg.com/submit?url=http://www.abcdef.com/index.php?perma_link='.$title_link.'"></a>';
$view_db .='</th></tr><tr>';
}

$view_db.='<th colspan="2" align="left">';

if (!is_null($perma_string)){
$view_db .='<a href="http://www.abcedf.com/blog/index.php?id=' .($id+1). '"/>&#9668;Back</a></th><th colspan="2" align="right">';
}else{
$view_db .='<a href="http://www.abcdef.com/blog/index.php?id=' .($id+1). '"/>&#9668;Previous</a></th><th colspan="2" align="right">';
}

if ($id > 1){
$view_db .='<a href="http://www.abcdef.com/blog/index.php?id=' .($id-1). '"/>Next&#9658</a>';
}
$view_db .='</th></tr></table>';
echo ($view_db); 


?>

[Readie]

OK, first of all you don't need to use preg_split here, using regex is unecessary for this script, and is just slowing it down.

preg_split('/\s/', $some_variable);

Can be changed to

explode(" ", $some_variable);

preg_split('/\,/', $some_variable);

Can be changed to

explode(",", $some_variable);

---

Also:

/\,/

Commas are just commas in regular expressions, they do not need to be escaped with a backslash.

Furthermore, it may not be working how you expect because you may need the multi-line flag:

/,/m

[jason_m]

using your method i get the following output:
//NOTE: same output with '/,/m'

my split:

tag1,tag2
else:
i: 0
size : 1
split i :
my split:

tag1,tag2
else:
i: 1
size : 1
split i :
my split:

using the following script:

$tags_fetch=$row['tag'];
$tags_cleaned=preg_replace( $sPattern, $sReplace, $tags_fetch);
//$my_split2=preg_split('/,/',$tags_cleaned);
$my_split2=explode('/,/', $tags_cleaned);

for($i=0;$i<=sizeof($my_split2);$i+=1){
echo 'my split:';
echo '<br>';
echo $my_split2[i];
echo '<br>';
if($i<sizeof($my_split2)-1){
echo $tags_cleaned;
echo '<br>';
echo 'if:<br>';
echo 'i: '.$i.'<br>';
    echo 'size : '.sizeof($my_split2).'<br>';
    echo 'split i :'.$my_split2[i];
echo '<br>';


}else{
echo $tags_cleaned;
echo '<br>';
echo 'else:<br>';
echo 'i: '.$i.'<br>';
    echo 'size : '.sizeof($my_split2).'<br>';
    echo 'split i :'.$my_split2[i];
echo '<br>';


}

}

[jason_m]

edit*:

my split:

tag1,tag2
else:
i: 0
size : 1
split i :
my split:

tag1,tag2
else:
i: 1
size : 1
split i :

[Readie]

$my_split2=explode('/,/', $tags_cleaned); 

Explode doesn't use regular expressions. Change this to

$my_split2=explode(',', $tags_cleaned); 

[jason_m]

$my_split2=explode(',', $tags_cleaned);

still no luck with this. output is coming in as my_split2[0]=blank, my_split[1]=full,tags,

[jason_m]

thank you for taking the time to help me with this.

[jason_m]

issue fixed.

please note above:

echo 'split i :'.$my_split2[i]; 

should be:

echo 'split i :'.$my_split2[[b]$i[/b]];

[Readie]

Ahh, that would explain it. If you do the following at the top of your PHP file it'll tell you if you're trying to call an undefined variable, like was happening there:

<?php

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL | E_STRICT);

Just make sure to remove them, or comment them out before your site goes live.

[jason_m]

i'm not exactly too professional about it. i do all my edits live :|.
i do not think my site gets much traffic, but establishing a visit tracker is next!

writing to a text file blah blah.

but thanks! thats a really useful tip!