Q:

How to extract string separated by comma with PHP?

I need extract a string separated by comma or comma and space.
Example:
<?php
    //regexp
    $regexp = "/(select\s+(?<name>[a-z0-9]+)\s+(?<values>[^\d]+[a-z0-9]+\s*(\s*,|\s*$)))/";
    //text
    $text = "select this string1,string_2,string_3 ,string_4, string5,string_6";
    //prepare
    $match = array();
    preg_match( $regexp , $text , $match );
    //print
    var_dump( $match);
?>

I created this regexp:
(?<values>[^\d]+[a-z0-9]+\s*(\s*,|\s*$))

But this does not work perfectly.
Thanks!

A:

I would use preg_split for this:
$text = "select this string1,string_2,string_3 ,string_4, string5,string_6";
$stringArray = preg_split("/,\s*/",$text);

But it would be much easier to just split after each comma and then trim the result:
$stringArray = explode(",",$text);

A:

I suggest you to use something like ~(?|select ([^\W_]+) | *([^\W,]+) *,?), if you want to check that you obtain only alphanumeric characters. Example:
$subject = 'select this string1,string_2,string_3 ,string_4, string5,string_6';
$pattern = '~(?|select ([a-z][^\W_]*+) | *+([a-z][^\W,_]*+) *+,?)~i';

preg_match_all($pattern, $subject, $matches);

if (isset($matches[1])) {
    $name = array_shift($matches[1]);
    $strings = $matches[1];
}

Or another way:
$pattern = '~select \K[a-z][^\W_]*+| *+\K[a-z][^\W,]*+(?= *,?)~';
preg_match_all($pattern, $subject, $matches);

if (isset($matches[0])) {
    $name = array_shift($matches[0]);
    $strings = $matches[0];
}

