Generic PHP Match Template with String

is there a function that will allow me to do the following:

$template = "{name}:{city}-{state}"
$string = "Tom:Some CityPlace-CA"

$out = function_I_am_looking_for($template,$string);

when $out returns

Array(
    [name] => Tom
    [city] => Some CityPlace
    [state] => CA
)

Does such a function exist?

-------- EDIT -----------

So the people have spoken, and since I dont like seeing something like this die, I will conclude. No built in function exists, however I did mock up one, and it does work. Feel free to refine, please comment you edits.

function genaric_match($template,$string,$varStart="{{",$varEnd="}}"){


  $template = str_replace($varStart,"|~|`",$template);
  $template = str_replace($varEnd,"`|~|",$template);

  $t=explode("|~|",$template);

  $temp="";
  $i=0;
  foreach ($t as $n=>$v){
    $i++;
    if (($i==count($t)||($i==(count($t)-1)&&$t[$n+1]==""))&&substr($v,0,1)=="`"&&substr($v,-1)=="`"){
      //Last Item
      $temp.="(?P<".substr($v,1,-1).">.++)";

    }elseif(substr($v,0,1)=="`"&&substr($v,-1)=="`"){
      //Search Item
      $temp.="(?P<".substr($v,1,-1).">[^".$t[$n+1]."]++)";

    }else{
      $temp.=$v;
    }

  }
  $temp="~^".$temp."$~";

  preg_match($temp, $string, $matches);

  return $matches;

}

This example

print_r(genaric_match("{{name}}:{{city}}-{{state}}","Tom:Some CityPlace-CA"));

Returns

Array
(
    [0] => Tom:Some CityPlace-CA
    [name] => Tom
    [1] => Tom
    [city] => Some CityPlace
    [2] => Some CityPlace
    [state] => CA
    [3] => CA
)

Yes, it's called preg_match. But you obviously need to write a regex for it. (If your question is, whether there is a magic recognize-any-pattern-without-even-knowing-it's-syntax function, then the answer is: No.)

preg_match('~^(?P<name>[^:]++):(?P<city>[^-]++)-(?P<state>.++)$~', $string, $matches);
var_dump($matches);

There's no such function in PHP "out of the box", but it would be fairly trivial to write one, as there are quite a few functions such as...

• explode
• preg_replace
• parse_string
• etc.

...that you could use to create one.

However, it has to be said that using PHP (which is to a large extent a template language) to create another template language seems an odd choice.