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Browse - programming tips - php convert string to array of words

Date: 2010apr20
Language: php

Q.  How can I convert a string to an array of English words?

A.  Here is a function that does that:

	function getWords($a) {
	        return preg_split('/\W+/', $a, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
	}

	# One problem: turns apostrophes into two words - eg "Apple's iPad"
	# becomes ["Apple", "s", "iPad"] so an alternative is:
	
	function getWords($a) {
	        return preg_split('/[\s,;\-\.]+/', $a, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
	}
	
	function exampleUse() {
		$str = "One two three.";
		$words = getWords($str);
		foreach ($words as $word) {
			print "word=$word\n";
		}
	}

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