Split string before each 5-digit string followed by a keyword

Question

I have a string like $str.

$str = "**00016**cam 3212543**00022**cam 3212543123153**00020**cam 32125433153";

I want to split it in array like this. The numbers before 'cam' is the string length.

$splitArray = ["00016cam 3212543", "00022cam 3212543123153", "00020cam 32125433153"]

I have tried following code:

$lengtharray = array(); 
while ($str != null) 
{ 
     $sublength = substr($str, $star, $end); 
     $star += (int)$sublength; // echo $star."<br>"; // echo $sublength."<br>"; 
     if($star == $total)
     { 
         exit; 
     }
     else
     { 

     } 

      array_push($lengtharray, $star); // echo 
      print_r($lengtharray); 
}

Answer 1

If your string doesn't contain stars then I'm afraid you need to write a simple parser that will:

• take characters from the left until it's not numeric
• do substr having the length

• repeat previous steps on not consumed string

  <?php
  
  $input = "00016cam 321254300022cam 321254312315300020cam 32125433153";
  
  function parseArray(string $input)
  {
      $result = [];
  
      while ($parsed = parseItem($input)) {
          $input = $parsed['rest'];
          $result[] = $parsed['item'];
      }
  
      return $result;
  }
  
  function parseItem(string $input)
  {
      $sLen = strlen($input);
      $len = '';
      $pos = 0;
      while ($pos < $sLen && is_numeric($input[$pos])) {
          $len .= $input[$pos];
          $pos++;
      }
  
      if ((int) $len == 0) {
          return null;
      }
  
      return [
          'rest' => substr($input, $len),
          'item' => substr($input, 0, $len)
      ];
  }
  
  var_dump(parseArray($input));