[KLUG Members] PHP and regular expression problem

[Adam Williams]

I've got a nasty programming problem.  I'm given a serial number and need 
to test if it falls in a certain range of serial numbers.  If serial 
numbers are entered "correctly" natural ordering works very well, such as 
-

$arr1 = array("7LC00001",
              "7LC00323",
              "7LC00324",
              "7LC00378",
              "7LC00379",
              "7LC99999",
              "8AB00001",
              "8AB00379",
              "8AB00380",
              "8AB00608",                            
              "8AB00609",
              "8AB00610",
              "8AB00611",
              "8AB00513",
              "8AB99999");
echo "\nNatural order string comparison\n";
usort($arr1,"strnatcmp");
print_r($arr1);


Will properly place 8AB00513 between 8AB00380 and 8AB00608,  I just grope 
the array and I know the beginning - ending ranges of the "model" I have.  
But if I get "8AB513" instead of "8AB00513" it will fall between 
"8AB00611" and "8AB99999", which is wrong.  So I want to simply gut the 
strings of 'embeded' zeros, that is zeros that are then followed by 
anything but a zero.

So that:
8AB00610 -> 8AB610
8AB00611 -> 8AB611
8AB00001 -> 8AB1

Then natural ordering will still worth even with absent zeros.

I'm pretty certain (although I'm also mentally fogged at this point) that 
$serialnumber = ereg_replace($regexp, "", $serialnumber);
should be able to do it for me,  but for the life of me I can't come up 
with a $regexp that works.

And expressions to try would be appreciated.