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<?php $array = [ 'Bruce A Johnson', 'Maggie Q', 'L B Johnson', 'X', 'F Mercury', 'R O C K in the U S A', 'Bruce A. Johnson', 'Maggie Q.', 'L. B. Johnson', 'X.', 'F. Mercury', 'R. O. C. K. in the U S A', ]; var_export( preg_replace('/( )?\b\w\b\.?(?(1)| ?)/', '', $array) ); echo "\n---\n"; var_export( preg_replace('/\b\w\b(\s|.\s)?/', '', $array) );
Output for 8.1.0 - 8.1.28, 8.2.0 - 8.2.19, 8.3.0 - 8.3.7
array ( 0 => 'Bruce Johnson', 1 => 'Maggie', 2 => 'Johnson', 3 => '', 4 => 'Mercury', 5 => 'in the', 6 => 'Bruce Johnson', 7 => 'Maggie', 8 => 'Johnson', 9 => '', 10 => 'Mercury', 11 => 'in the', ) --- array ( 0 => 'Bruce Johnson', 1 => 'Maggie ', 2 => 'Johnson', 3 => '', 4 => 'Mercury', 5 => 'in the ', 6 => 'Bruce Johnson', 7 => 'Maggie .', 8 => 'Johnson', 9 => '.', 10 => 'Mercury', 11 => 'in the ', )
preferences:
76.72 ms | 403 KiB | 62 Q