Exploding a string with a delimiter of multiple spaces

[cgdtalent]

I'm reading in information from a .txt file and I need to separate the columns based on multiple spaces - not just 1 space. The info is separated like this:

City State Zip Code
-------------------------------------------------
New York NY 60111
Chicago IL 60123


Because the cities can have a space in them, I can't explode the string like this:

PHP Code:

$new_string = explode(" ", $old_string); 


I also can't determine how many spaces are between the city column and the state column. So is there a way to explode the string into smaller parts based on two or more spaces separating each part of the string?

[LearningCoder]

Maybe you could insert the states like 'New_York' then explode values to array. Once in array, search all state values for a '_' undrerscore character and then replace with a space ' ', which will give you back the original string 'New York'.

That's what I'd do but there is most likely much better ways to do it.

Hope it helps though.

Regards,

LC.

[cgdtalent]

Originally Posted by LearningCoder

Maybe you could insert the states like 'New_York' then explode values to array. Once in array, search all state values for a '_' undrerscore character and then replace with a space ' ', which will give you back the original string 'New York'.

That's what I'd do but there is most likely much better ways to do it.

Hope it helps though.

Regards,

LC.

I think I know what you mean but my problem is that when I read a line in from the text file, I need to separate the various columns of (state, zip, county). Because there's multiple, varying spaces separating each column, and then of course some cities have a space in them, it's not possible to explode it by a single space. I need to explode it by two spaces or more.

Maybe you already understood that but I figured I'd clarity it a bit more.

I just can't figure out how to explode it by two spaces or more...that's my real issue.

[LearningCoder]

Have you tried using a double space as the delimiter, like:

PHP Code:

$new_string = explode("  ", $old_string); 


I just created a string with a double space, used the code above and it worked fine.

Regards,

LC.

[cgdtalent]

How about 2 or more spaces?

The data is being read in like:
New York   NY      60111

[cgdtalent]

Thanks for taking the time to help with this but I did the easiest thing - something I should have done earlier....I just found a new zip code listing with commas separating the values instead of spaces.

[LearningCoder]

Give this a try:

PHP Code:

$new_string = preg_split('/ {2,}/',$old_string); 


Regards,

LC.