Varible split

[Me01273]

Hi, I am selecting a very long string out of a database such as story
I want to display the story in three table columns next to each other.
How can i count how many characters are in a varible and split into three equal(or near equal) varibles. i.e.:

$var1=nice sunny day
turns into
$var2=nice
$var3=sunny
$var4=day

It doesnt matter if it cuts in the middle of a word.

any ideas?

thanks in advance

[Dan Grossman]

As long as you don't care about word boundaries...

count($var1) would give you the number of characters
substr($var1, start, length) gives you a substring

[7stud]

strlen($str) will give you the number of characters in the string--count() will not.

[Me01273]

And how would i split it up into three?

[Dan Grossman]

Divide by 3 and use that as your length in the substr()'s.

[Me01273]

ok thanks

[Me01273]

ok i understand that

strlen($var1);

will give me the number of characters. but what does it asign that number to? i.e. a varible or what?

so i can do

$legnth / 3

can i do it like this:

$length = strlen($var1);

Thanks

David

[7stud]

will give me the number of characters. but what does it asign that number to? i.e. a varible or what?

If the function returns the count, then you want to store that somewhere so you can use it. In computer programming languages, you store values in what are called 'variables', e.g.:

$totalLength = strlen($myString);

The strlen() function figures out the count for you, and that line tells php to store the value in the variable $totalLength. That is what the '=' does. It says to 'assign' the value on the right, to the variable on the left.

[Me01273]

ok thanks

[exam]

You might also try something like this. It'll split on spaces, and it'll look nicer (even though I know you said this wasn't important)

$text = explode (' ', $text);
$text = array_chunk ($text, (count ($text) / 3) + 1);
for ($i=0; $i<3; ++$i) $text[$i] = implode (' ', $text[$i]);

// Access the text for the 3 columns like:
echo $text[0];
echo $text[1];
echo $text[2]; 

[Me01273]

I got it working.
just incase anybody else wants to use it:

$result = @mysql_query("SELECT subject, maintext FROM article where id='$artid'"); 
 if (!$result) { 
   exit('<p>Error performing query: ' . 
       mysql_error() . '</p>'); 
 } 
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {  
   $subject = $row['subject']; 
   $maintext = $row['maintext']; 
 } 
 
 $totallength = strlen($maintext);
 $shortlength = $totallength / 3;
 $longlength = $shortlength * 2;
 $part1 = substr($maintext,0,$shortlength);
 $part2 = substr($maintext,$shortlength,$shortlength);
 $part3 = substr($maintext,$longlength,$shortlength); 

Thanks so much.

[exam]

Glad you got it working, although I believe what I posted is a more readable solution.

[Me01273]

You might also try something like this. It'll split on spaces, and it'll look nicer (even though I know you said this wasn't important)

$text = explode (' ', $text);
$text = array_chunk ($text, (count ($text) / 3) + 1);

// Access the text for the 3 columns like:
echo $text[0];
echo $text[1];
echo $text[2]; 

Thanks i will use this instead.
one question though.

it doesnt work.

when i do echo $text[0]; or any of them, it just sais "Array" on the screen.

any ideas?

[exam]

I just fixed it. That's what I get for typing and not testing first.

[Me01273]

That works perfect and its the code is neater than mine.

Thank you so much.

[exam]

Your code is fine too, many coders fight over what's "better" when it's really a subjective thing. What would tip the scales for me is that it splits between words.

[Me01273]

Yes thats what did it for me too.
Thats the first compliment ive had about my coding!
ussualy its all over the place.

[7stud]

Your code is fine too,

Actually, I don't think it is. I think it will drop some characters in the middle and on the end. Oh, well.

[7stud]

Try this:

$maintext = "hello world";

$totallength = strlen($maintext);
$shortlength = $totallength / 3;
$longlength = $shortlength * 2;
$part1 = substr($maintext,0,$shortlength);
$part2 = substr($maintext,$shortlength,$shortlength);
$part3 = substr($maintext,$longlength,$shortlength); 

echo $part1;
echo $part2;
echo $part3; 

It certainly could be fixed by rounding $shortlength, and using:

substr($maintext,$longlength)

to get everything to the end of the string for the last piece. The substring method will be more efficient, although the explode(), array_chunk(), and implode() is a clever script.

You got a lot a farther than I thought you would ever get after your initial questions.

[Me01273]

Told you, i knew my coding couldnt be that good!

[stereofrog]

Hi, I am selecting a very long string out of a database such as story
I want to display the story in three table columns next to each other.
How can i count how many characters are in a varible and split into three equal(or near equal) varibles. i.e.:

$var1=nice sunny day
turns into
$var2=nice
$var3=sunny
$var4=day

It doesnt matter if it cuts in the middle of a word.

any ideas?

thanks in advance

$text = "hello world";

var_dump(
    explode(
        "\000", 
        trim(
            chunk_split($text, strlen($text) / 3, "\000")
        )
    )
); 

chunk_split

[exam]

$text = "hello world";

var_dump(
    explode(
        "\000", 
        trim(
            chunk_split($text, strlen($text) / 3, "\000")
        )
    )
); 

chunk_split

Looks pretty clever, I like it.