What is the php regular expression to get everything before a certain character?

[zerugaze]

For instance, I have the following string:

table:column

I need to get "table" as the result of the php regular expression.

So, I need everything before the ":" symbol

After that regular expression is performed, I would also like to get everything after the ":" symbol, or "column" as well.

[ShawnCplus]

^(.+?):(.+?)$
That's pretty much it. That's a pretty simple regex, you might want to study them for yourself http://www.regular-expressions.info/ , it's a pretty decent resource.

[scrager]

in this case I would use split.

$parts = split(":", "table:column");
$parts[0] //table
$parts[1] //column

[!Unreal]

in this case I would use split.

$parts = split(":", "table:column");
$parts[0] //table
$parts[1] //column

Whats the difference between that and explode?

[ShawnCplus]

Split and explode are the same thing, they are just two different names.

[!Unreal]

Hmm...Just googled it to double check and it said that split uses regex where as explode uses a string.

[Will Gresham]

That and explode is supposed to execute faster due to the lack of regex, although for what the OP wants, I doubt it will make much difference which is used.

[cwarn23]

Hmm...Just googled it to double check and it said that split uses regex where as explode uses a string.

If explode uses a string and split uses regex then what does preg_split use? What is the difference between split and preg_split? Just curious.

[jedi_ralf]

If explode uses a string and split uses regex then what does preg_split use? What is the difference between split and preg_split? Just curious.

"explode() takes a delimiter to split by ... split() takes a regular expression"
"documentation says that preg_split() is faster than split()" http://blog.brianhartsock.com/2007/06/11/php-explode-vs-split/

"preg_split(), which uses a Perl-compatible regular expression syntax, is often a faster alternative to split(). If you don't require the power of regular expressions, it is faster to use explode(), which doesn't incur the overhead of the regular expression engine."
- http://uk3.php.net/split

Some speed stats: http://forums.codewalkers.com/php-coding-7/split-vs-preg-split-vs-explode-71423.html

So in answer to your question, preg_split uses regex like split. However, I don't know what the exact difference is.