Split string containing numbered list items before each number followed by a dot then a space

Question

My php code goes like this:

$str = "1. What is love? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway 2. What is love 1.1? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway";

echo "<pre>";
print_r(preg_split('/(?=[\d]+\.)/', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY));
echo "<pre/>";

And the output is:

Array
    (
        [0] => 1. What is love? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway 
        [1] => 2. What is love? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway
    )

I'm trying to solve this problem that I discovered. And the problem is when my $str is like this: $str = "1. What is love 1.1? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway

I'm getting:

Array
(
    [0] => 1. What is love 
    [1] => 1.1? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway 
    [2] => 2. What is love? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway
)

I don't want "1.1" to be on the index[1], I want it to stay on index[0].

I've tried tweaking the pattern which I'm using in preg_split() but I'm failing on what I want to achieve...

Can anyone give some advice on what should I do?

Answer 1

You can use a negative lookahead to make sure there is no digit following DOT:

print_r(preg_split('/(?=\d+\.(?!\d))/', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY));
Array
(
    [0] => 1. What is love? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway
    [1] => 2. What is love 1.1? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway
)