PHP : Convert a string to an array

Question

How can I convert String to an Array?

String bellow

$string = "12&Shoes&28&Jewelry&30&Watch&96&Beauty&98&Kids&Baby";

wants to output:

 array{
        [12] => 'Shoes',
        [28] => 'Jewelry',
        [30] => 'Watch',
        [96] => 'Beauty',
        [98] => 'Kids&Baby'
    }

Can any one suggest me how can I convert it using php function? like preg_match,preg_match_all etc.also code should be short.

Answer 1

I know you asked for regex, but i'm the one who likes to do other way if it's simple to do.

$string = "12&Shoes&28&Jewelry&30&Watch&96&Beauty&98&Kids&Baby&Try";
$array = explode('&', $string);
$total = count($array);
for ($i = 0; $i < $total; $i++) {
  if (is_numeric($array[$i])) {
   $result[$array[$i]] = '';
   $lastIndex = $array[$i];
  } else {
    if ($result[$lastIndex] == ''){
       $result[$lastIndex] .= $array[$i];
    } else {
        $result[$lastIndex] .= '&' . $array[$i];
    }
  }
}
var_dump($result);