Question 229056 in PHP Question posted in
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Php – Adding three dots or the ellipsis character to regex which targets the end of sentences

I have this regex:

 $text = preg_replace_callback('/(d+.d+|b[A-Z](?:.[A-Z])*b.?)|([.,;:!?)])s*/', function ($matches) {
        return $matches[1] ? $matches[1] : $matches[2] . ' ';
    }, $text);

Which targets the end of sentences and avoids abbreviations like N.B.C.

It works fine. The problem is that it doesn’t detect tree dots ... or the ellipsis symbol … as the end of the sentence.

How can I adjust the regex to include it as well?

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2

Answers


  1. 0

    You can modify your regular expression to include three dots (...) or the ellipsis symbol (…) by adding a new group to the pattern that specifically looks for those characters.

    Here’s the adjusted regex:

    $text = preg_replace_callback('/(d+.d+|b[A-Z](?:.[A-Z])*b.?)|(.{3}|…|[.,;:!?)])s*/', function ($matches) {
    return $matches[1] ? $matches[1] : $matches[2] . ' ';
}, $text);

    This pattern now includes a subgroup (.{3}|…) that looks for either three dots or the ellipsis character. It will match any of these symbols and replace them with themselves followed by a space, just like the other punctuation in your original pattern.

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  2. 0

    If you want to add a space after one of the punctuations, but not for the digits or the abbreviations and then only after 1 or 3 dots, you could make use of SKIP FAIL and K

    In the replacement you could then use a space and use preg_replace

    b(?:d+(?:.d+)+b|[A-Z](?:.[A-Z])*b.?)(*SKIP)(*F)|(?:[,;:!?…]+(?=[^s,;:!?…])|(?<!.)(?:.{3}|.)(?=[^s.]))K

    The pattern matches:

    • b A word boundary to prevent a partial match
    • (?: Non capture group for the alternatives
      • d+(?:.d+)+b Match 1+ digits and repeat 1+ times . and 1+ digits followed by a word boundary
      • | Or
      • [A-Z](?:.[A-Z])*b.? Match a single char A-Z and optionally repeat . and a char A-Z and an optional dot
    • ) Close the non capture group
    • (*SKIP)(*F) Skip the match
    • | Or
    • (?: Non capture group
      • [,;:!?…]+(?=[^s,;:!?…]) Match 1+ times any of the listed characters, and assert that to the right there is a non whitespace char except being one of the listed characters
      • | Or
      • (?<!.) Negative lookbehind, assert not a dot directly to the elft
      • (?:.{3}|.) Match either 3 or 1 dots
      • (?=[^s.]) Positive lookahead, assert a non whitespace char to the right, except for a dot
        –) Close the non capture group
    • K Forget what is matched so far

    Regex demo | PHP demo

    For example

    $pattern = '/b(?:d+(?:.d+)+|[A-Z](?:.[A-Z])*b.?)(*SKIP)(*F)|(?:[,;:!?…]+(?=[^s,;:!?…])|(?<!.)(?:.{3}|.)(?=[^s.]))K/';
$text = preg_replace($pattern, " ", $string);
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