Need help with PHP code

[DigitalPimp]

Anyone know why the following does not return desired results and how to get it to?

$string = 'a,b,c,d';

if(eregi("(a)|(adf)|(c)",$string,$matchedtext)){ 
echo $matchedtext[1]; // This returns an "a" which I want
echo $matchedtext[2]; // This is empty, I want it to return a "c"
}

[DigitalPimp]

Code should have read:

$string = 'a,b,c,d';

if(eregi("(a)|(c)|(adf)",$string,$matchedtext)){ 
echo $matchedtext[1]; // This returns an "a" which I want
echo $matchedtext[2]; // This is empty, I want it to return a "c"
}

[CS-Jay]

who don't you do a print_r($matchedtext) to see what's in there?

[Beaver Bob]

not sure exactly what you are trying to do here, but take some time to read up on regular expressions in PHP and you should be able to figure it out.

http://www.regular-expressions.info/php.html
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ereg.php

[DigitalPimp]

who don't you do a print_r($matchedtext) to see what's in there?

print_r($matchedtext) returns:

Array ( [0] => a [1] => a [2] => [3] => )

My understanding is matchedtext[0] is supposed to return the complete string matched, matchedtext[1] is supposed to return the substring which starts at the first left parenthesis, matchedtext[2] the next and so on. For some reason matchedtext[2] is not returning the letter "c" as I would expect.

[DigitalPimp]

not sure exactly what you are trying to do here, but take some time to read up on regular expressions in PHP and you should be able to figure it out.

http://www.regular-expressions.info/php.html
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ereg.php

I am trying to get the second substring "(c)" to get stored in the $matchedtext array. I will review those pages.

[calmlikeabomb]

You owe me a blow job.

It could be shorter, but that takes time, more thought and money.

<?php

$string = 'a,b,c,d';

foreach(explode(',', $string) as $match) {
    if(in_array($match, array('a','c'))) $matches[] = $match;
}

print_r($matches); // Here are your items.

?>

[DigitalPimp]

thank you!