How to strip a string in PHP from everything besides numbers

Question

Currently when I echo a string I have saved it looks like this:

• 94% positive ·

What I want to have instead is simply:

94

I thought that the following would do the trick:

preg_replace("/[^0-9]/","", $string)

But for some reason (I am assuming the bullet point) doing so instead gives me this:

94018332

Any help to get just the "94"?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 03 '13 at 23:09

3

You are correct, the bullet point is being handled as an HTML entity and therefore contains numbers.

However, since your format is specific enough, you can use a better regex:

preg_match("/\d+(?=%)/",$string,$match);
$percentage = $match[0];

This regex specifically searches for numbers followed immediately by a percent sign (and only the first such match).

answered Mar 03 '13 at 23:09

But how could a HTML encoded percent sign ever result in `94018332`? – Pekka Mar 03 '13 at 23:11
1

@Pekka웃 It has nothing to do with the percent sign, and everything to do with the middot. I'm not sure how middot and `018332` go together, but it's possible that there's more than one special character there (such as spaces) – Niet the Dark Absol Mar 03 '13 at 23:13
Ah, you're right. I got stuck on the `%` for some reason – Pekka Mar 03 '13 at 23:14
Would the two people who downvoted this answer please explain? – Niet the Dark Absol Mar 03 '13 at 23:54

Starx · Answer 2 · 2013-03-03T23:15:20.567

3

You can use the filter functions to filter the number out.

$yourString =  "• 94% positive";
$int = filter_var($yourString, FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT);
echo $int; //WIll echo 94

edited Mar 03 '13 at 23:15

answered Mar 03 '13 at 23:09

Starx

This is functionally identical to the original code, and therefore will not work due to the middot special character. – Niet the Dark Absol Mar 03 '13 at 23:11
Your demo show's a full stop, not the html bullet. – webnoob Mar 03 '13 at 23:12
Either way it should just work – PeeHaa Mar 03 '13 at 23:13
It'll still work: http://codepad.org/yBgBeXIl – sachleen Mar 03 '13 at 23:13
1

@webnoob, that is just for demo. I didn't wanted to look for unicode character for that. – Starx Mar 03 '13 at 23:13
Yeah, just checked it myself. Still good then :) – webnoob Mar 03 '13 at 23:13
1

If you actually try rebuilding the original string, you get [this](http://codepad.org/9AGsbSny) and lo and behold it doesn't work. – Niet the Dark Absol Mar 03 '13 at 23:15
@Starx but the middot is fundamental here. If the string consists of numeric HTML entities (which is why the problem occurs in the first place), those numbers will be (incorrectly) filtered out as well. – Pekka Mar 03 '13 at 23:15
@Pekka웃, Now I understand the problem. Kolink's answer is good for that I think. – Starx Mar 03 '13 at 23:16
*How does this answer have five upvotes???* – Niet the Dark Absol Mar 03 '13 at 23:53
@Kolink, I upvoted your answer, as it is the right one. – Starx Mar 03 '13 at 23:57
@devirkahan You should accept Kolink's answer. – Starx Mar 03 '13 at 23:58

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 03 '13 at 23:09

1

If your number is always on the first and following characters you can use functions like floatval or intval.

answered Mar 03 '13 at 23:09

Voitcus

Jens Peters · Answer 4 · 2013-03-03T23:44:59.900

-1

Did you simply try to cast?

echo (int) trim("• 94% positive ·", "•  ·");
echo (int) trim("• 94% positive", "•  ·");

Both should output to:

Kind regards...

edited Mar 03 '13 at 23:44

answered Mar 03 '13 at 23:20

Jens Peters

4 Answers4