preg_split() and implode() newbie help please (trying to do tags right)

I am using some ready-made code and it was using implode & explode functions to assign tags to photos, tags users typed in. It was not doing it right though, as if you tried a two word tag, it was splitting it. So I replaced the explode function with a preg_split function with a regex I found, but even though testing the function & regex on http://php.fnlist.com/regexp/preg_split shows that it splits the tags correctly, in my application it totally ignores any two-word tags.

I am trying to get, from input like "crime, love, mystery ,crime drama,romance" nicely formatted tags: "开发者_如何学Gocrime,love,mystery,crime drama,romance" and I get instead: "crime, love, mystery,romance"

I am giving the code I have below. Please help!!

   <?php
class PhotoTagsController extends AppController {
var $name = 'PhotoTags';

var $uses = array('PhotoTag', 'Photo');

function edit($id = null)
{
 $this->authorize();

  if(!($photo = $this->Photo->findById($id)))
  {
    $this->flash('error', ucfirst(i18n::translate('photo not found')));
    $this->redirect('/');
  }
  else
  {
    $this->authorize($photo['Photo']['user_id']);

    $this->set('photo', $photo);

    if(empty($this->data))
    {
      $photo['Photo']['tags'] = array();
      foreach($photo['PhotoTag'] as $tag)
        $photo['Photo']['tags'][] = $tag['tag'];
      $photo['Photo']['tags'] = implode(',', $photo['Photo']['tags']);

      $this->data = $photo;
    }
    else
    { 

    // foreach(explode(',', $this->data['Photo']['tags']) as $tag)


   foreach(preg_split("/[s]*[,][ s]*/", $this->data['Photo']['tags']) as $tag)

      {
        $tag = strtolower(rtrim($tag));  //trims whitespace at end of tag
        if(!empty($tag))
        {
          $found = false;

          for($i = 0; $i < count($photo['PhotoTag']); $i++)
          {
            if(isset($photo['PhotoTag'][$i]) && $photo['PhotoTag'][$i]['tag'] == $tag)
            {
              $found = true;
              unset($photo['PhotoTag'][$i]);
              break;
            }
          }

          if(!$found)
          {
            $this->PhotoTag->create();
            $this->PhotoTag->save(array('PhotoTag' => array('photo_id' => $photo['Photo']['id'], 'tag' => $tag)));
          }
        }
      }

      foreach($photo['PhotoTag'] as $tag)
        $this->PhotoTag->delete($tag['id']);

      $this->flash('valid', ucfirst(i18n::translate('tags changed')));
      $this->redirect('/photos/show/' . $photo['User']['username'] . '/' . $photo['Photo']['id']);
    }
  }
}

function ajax_edit($id = null) {
 $this->authorize();

 if(!($photo = $this->Photo->findById($id)))
 {
   die();
 }
 else
 {
   $this->authorize($photo['Photo']['user_id']);

 // foreach(explode(',', $this->params['form']['value']) as $tag)

foreach(preg_split("/[s]*[,][ s]*/", $this->params['form']['value']) as $tag)

   {
     $tag = strtolower(rtrim($tag));
     if(!empty($tag))
     {
       $found = false;

       for($i = 0; $i < count($photo['PhotoTag']); $i++)
       {
         if(isset($photo['PhotoTag'][$i]) && $photo['PhotoTag'][$i]['tag'] == $tag)
         {
           $found = true;
           unset($photo['PhotoTag'][$i]);
           break;
         }
       }

       if(!$found)
       {
         $this->PhotoTag->create();
         $this->PhotoTag->save(array('PhotoTag' => array('photo_id' => $photo['Photo']['id'], 'tag' => $tag)));
       }
     }
   }

   foreach($photo['PhotoTag'] as $tag)
     $this->PhotoTag->delete($tag['id']);

    echo $this->params['form']['value'];

   die();
 }
}
}
?>

Change your preg_split regex to:

/(\s+)?,(\s+)?/

Or...

/\s*,\s*/

I think you're trying to over complicate things. If you want to split by comma's, just use the more simple explode() function. You can then use trim() to strip off the white space.

$parts = explode(',', $input_string);
foreach ($parts as $value) {
   $results[] = trim($value);
}