[KLUG Members] PHP and regular expression problem

[Dirk H Bartley]

Adam Williams wrote:
> 
> 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.

At the risk of sounding, like, well, tupid.  Just the text string "0" should work.  Is
this just replacing the first zero?  Have you tried the sister function preg_replace(mixed
pattern, mixed replacement, mixed subject [, int limit]) to see if you can get it to work
for this case?

> 
> And expressions to try would be appreciated.
> 
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