Removing content between ( )

[zeeshanhashmi]

Hello

I have a situation where i want to remove all the contents between and including ( and ).

For example

AAA(asdasdasdasdasd)BBB -> AAABBB
A90(59.093)ftg->a90ftg

please guide

[Salathe]

Are you looking for guidance, or a code snippet to copy and paste? The problem is pretty simple and can be achieved in a variety of ways. You could use basic string functions, manual parsing of the string, a regular expression, etc. to do this. Is that guidance enough?

[Jake Arkinstall]

Oooh, I see one of 'those' threads happening... People coming up with the most complicated ways of doing stuff!

Well the obvious regex one is

$String = 'AAA(asdasdasdasdasd)BBB<br />A90(59.093)ftg';
$String = preg_replace('~\([^)]*\)~', '', $String);
echo $String; 

But I'd love to see some inventive over-complicated ways of going about this :P

[tangoforce]

I wouldn't even use a regular expression.. I'd just str_replace() !

$New_String = str_replace('(asdasdasdasdasd)', '', 'AAA(asdasdasdasdasd)BBB');

There... done in one line although admittedly thats assuming the string is hard coded!

Saves coding that RE...

[Salathe]

I'd love to see some inventive over-complicated ways of going about this :P

I'll see your regex and raise it via the medium of recursion with a hint of silliness.

<?php
$subject = "AAA(asdasdasdasdasd)BBB\nA90(59.093)ftg";
$pattern = '/(?(DEFINE)(?<_>[^()])(?<__>(?&_)*+))
            \((?<___>(?&__) | \((?(R&___))\))*\)/x';
echo preg_replace($pattern, '', $subject);
?>

The output being:

AAABBB
A90ftg

[tangoforce]

Ok, heres my second bash.. This one does it dynamically. I'll be brave and admit it.. I've never used regular expressions, don't really understand them and tend to do everything the hard way.

So.. I figured I'd do this for everyone elses benefit if they're in the same boat:

$Var = "AAA(asdasdasdasdasd)BBB->a90ftg";
print substr_replace($Var, '', strpos($Var, '('), strpos($Var, ')') -strpos($Var, '(') +1);

[zeeshanhashmi]

Thanks a lot arkinstall

You understand the issue and has presented the BEST comment and solution.

[Salathe]

Thanks a lot arkinstall

You understand the issue and has presented the BEST comment and solution.

Bear in mind that arkinstall's solution will fail in certain conditions, for example if there are nested parentheses. If this is likely a problem for you, the regular expression could be modified to check more precisely for proper pairs of parentheses. Would this be something you want, or is arkinstall's solution "good enough"?