PHP-REGEX - Multiple Choice Type

Question

I have a string like this:

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

What I want to do is to have an output like this and store each question to a div:

1. What is love? 
a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway 

2. What is love? 
a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway 

As of the moment, I created this made-up code for regex (still a newbie, sorry!)

$str = "1. What is love? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway 2. What is love? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway"
$repl = preg_replace('#(\d+:.*?)(?=\d+:|$) *#', "$1", $str);
echo "<div>$repl</div>";

And the output is this and it's stored on a single div:

1. What is love? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway 2. What is love? a. Haddaway b. Haxxaway c. Hassaway d. Hannaway

I'm confused on how to separate each question and how to put a div on each choice... can anyone give some advice on what should I do?

Answer 1

You can use preg_split like this:

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

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

(?=[a\d]+\.) is a lookahead that splits when followed by number or letter a plus a DOT.