Regular Expression: Sentence Structure, workaroud for full stop rule: full stop regex regular expressions

Regular Expression: Sentence Structure, workaroud for full stop rule

Hi experts

I am using the following script to crop a text by number of sentences. It works fine except when some abbreviations like U.S comes within the text. I want this rule to neglect situations like that. Any help would be appreciated. I have copied and pasted my whole function in the code segment of this question.

//getLeadingSentences
//Copyright (c) 2000 Jason R. Pitoniak.  All rights reserved.
//jason@interbrite.com http://www.interbrite.com
 
//If you find this code useful, find a bug, or have a suggestion,
//please email me.  Feel free to use this code for any purpose.
 
/**
 * getLeadingSentences()
 * 
 * @param mixed $data
 * @param mixed $max
 * @return
 */
function getLeadingSentences($data, $max)
{
    //given string $data, will return the first $max sentences in that string
 
    //in: $data = the string to parse, $max = maximum # of sentences to return
    //returns: string containing the first $max sentences
    //(If the # of sentences in the string is less than $max,
    //then entire string will be returned.)
 
    //a sentence is any charactors except ., !, and ?
    //any number of times,  plus one or more .s, ?s, or !s
    //and any leading or trailing whitespace:
    $re = "^s*[^.?!]+[.?!]+s*";
    $out = "";
    for ($i = 0; $i < $max; $i++) {
        if (ereg($re, $data, $match)) {
            //if a sentence is found, take it out of $data and add it to $out
            $out .= $match[0];
            $data = ereg_replace($re, "", $data);
        } else {
            $i = $max;
        }
    }
    return $out;
}

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<? //getLeadingSentences //Copyright (c) 2000 Jason R. Pitoniak. All rights reserved. //jason@interbrite.com http://www.interbrite.com //If you find this code useful, find a bug, or have a suggestion, //please email me. Feel free to use this code for any purpose. /** * getLeadingSentences() * * @param mixed $data * @param mixed $max * @return */ function getLeadingSentences($data, $max) { //given string $data, will return the first $max sentences in that string //in: $data = the string to parse, $max = maximum # of sentences to return //returns: string containing the first $max sentences //(If the # of sentences in the string is less than $max, //then entire string will be returned.) //a sentence is any charactors except ., !, and ? //any number of times, plus one or more .s, ?s, or !s //and any leading or trailing whitespace: $re = "/^\s*(.+?)(?<=[.!?]\s|[.!?]$)/"; $out = ""; for ($i = 0; $i < $max; $i++) { if (preg_match($re, $data, $match)) { //if a sentence is found, take it out of $data and add it to $out $out .= $match[0]; $data = preg_replace($re, "", $data); } else { $i = $max; } } return $out; } echo getLeadingSentences('This is a sentence. Another e.g.! A third? Forth!',3); ?>

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Regular Expression: Sentence Structure, workaroud for full stop rule

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