How to add a linebreak in a string every two words?

[KaiserG]

I'm making a PHP script which makes a list of first and last names, taken from a form. And then saves it to a .txt file.
As several people is just placing one name after another instead of using line breaks.
I need to make a line break every 2 words manually.

This is what I got so far:

$dia=$HTTP_POST_VARS['dia'];
$invitados=$HTTP_POST_VARS['invitados'…
$clean = ereg_replace("[^A-Za-z \n]", "", $invitados); //clean
$lowercase = strtolower($clean); //remove caps
$text = ucwords($lowercase); //capitalize
$lista = //here I should need the code that modifies the $text string and makes it a list

//Which list?
if ( ($dia) == "Jueves" ) {
$file = "ListaJueves.txt";
} else if ( ($dia) == "Viernes" ) {
$file = "ListaViernes.txt";
} else if ( ($dia) == "Sabado" ) {
$file = "ListaSabado.txt";
} else if ( ($dia) == "Feriado" ) {
$file = "ListaFeriados.txt";
} else { exit; }

//Write the file
$fh = fopen($file, 'a') or die("cant open file");
fwrite($fh, "\n".$lista);
fclose($fh); 

As you can see, as it gets the $invitados string it gets formatted and removes non-Alphabetic characters, but then I would need to make my .txt list to look like a list.

Now for the real question:
How do I make a new line after every two words from a block of text?

It should make this:

Gonzalo Novoa Gerardo Gaudio, Norma Lean, Carlos Lobieta

to look like this

Gonzalo Novoa
Gerardo Gaudio
Norma Lean
Carlos Lobieta

Please note that it should replace the space after "Novoa" in the example, as well as the commas.
There's some annoying people who separates names with more characters than only commas or no comma at all.
Adding the linebreak after every two words is my main concern.

[George88]

With respect to adding a line break every 2 words, you could write a simple solution which increments a counter by 1 each time a space is encountered, and just add a line break to the string after the 2nd space is found. Perhaps something along the lines of:

$string = "Gonzalo Novoa Gerardo Gaudio, Norma Lean, Carlos Lobieta";

// Can't recall if this is a global S&R.
$string = str_replace(",", "", $string);

$counter = 0;

for($i = 0; $i < strlen($string); $i++)
{
    if($string[$i] == " " || $string[$i] == "&nbsp;")
    {
         $counter++;
    }

    if($counter == 2)
    {
        $counter = 0;
    
        $string[$i] = "\n";
    }
} 

I haven't tested this so it might not work as I expect. Another solution is just to add a "\n" to the end of the last name upon submission, negating the need for a solution such as this.

[KaiserG]

That's something good to start. Useful indeed.
Maybe I could also use

explode() 

to separate words and then every two words add the break. I'm not too familiar with that function so I didn't tried.

I'll try with your piece of code and tell you how it goes. I could also count commas to add 2 to the counter so it adds the break to commas too.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

[NogDog]

Just to give precedence to any commas, you could do:

<?php

$text = "Gonzalo Novoa Gerardo Gaudio, Norma Lean, Carlos Lobieta";

$parts = preg_split('/\s*,\s*/', $text);
foreach($parts as $part) {
    preg_match_all('/\S+\s+\S+/', $part, $names);
    foreach($names[0] as $name) {
        echo "$name<br />\n";
    }
}

[KaiserG]

Thanks NogDog! That just worked great! Helped me a lot.

Thanks for all the help everyone. Problem solved. (Although a new one comes up every time. Life's like that)

[NogDog]

Just to give precedence to any commas, you could do:

<?php

$text = "Gonzalo Novoa Gerardo Gaudio, Norma Lean, Carlos Lobieta";

$parts = preg_split('/\s*,\s*/', $text);
foreach($parts as $part) {
    preg_match_all('/\S+\s+\S+/', $part, $names);
    foreach($names[0] as $name) {
        echo "$name<br />\n";
    }
}

[KaiserG]

Oh, to make it work in my own code it looks like this:

$mail_solicitante=$HTTP_POST_VARS['mail'];
$dia=$HTTP_POST_VARS['dia'];
$invitados=$HTTP_POST_VARS['invitados'];
$list = str_replace( ", ", "\r\n", $invitados);
$lowercase = strtolower($list); //remover caps
$string = ucwords($lowercase); //capitalizar

//---------
$parts = preg_split('/\s*,\s*/', $string); 
foreach($parts as $part) { 
    preg_match_all('/\S+\s+\S+/', $part, $names); 
    foreach($names[0] as $name) { 
        $separate.= "$name\n"; 
    } 
}

$lista = ereg_replace("[^A-Za-z \n]", "", $separate); //limpiar
//----------
//Escribimos el archivo
$fh = fopen($file, 'a') or die("no se puede abrir el archivo");
fwrite($fh, "\n".$lista);
fclose($fh);