php - Matching x words in brackets regex -

i trying remove brackets string if contains 4 or more words. have been scratching head , cannot anywhere it.

preg_replace('#\([word]{4,}\)#', '', $str); # pseudo code 

sample string:

robert alner fund standard open nh flat race (supported andrew stewart charitable foundation)

to match (more x words in brackets) , remove:

(supported andrew stewart charitable foundation)

i have 2 sources of data, , using:

similar_text($str1, $str2, &$percent) 

to compare , longish strings in brackets unique 1 source.

well, you're close...

preg_replace('#\((\b\w+\b[^\w)]*){4,}\)#', '', $str); 

basically, inner sub-pattern (\b\w+\b[^\w)]*) matches word-boundary (meaning not in-between 2 word characters) followed @ least 1 word character (a-z0-9), followed word-boundary, , followed 0 or more characters not word characters , not )...

testing with:

$tests = array(     'test1 (this three)',     'test2 (this 4 words)',     'test3 (this 4 words) , (this three)',     'test4 (this 5 words inside)', );  foreach ($tests $str) {     echo $str . " - " . preg_replace('#\((\b\w+\b[^\w)]*){4,}\)#', '', $str) . "\n"; } 

gives:

test1 (this three) - test1 (this three) test2 (this 4 words) - test2 test3 (this 4 words) , (this three) - test3  , (this three) test4 (this 5 words inside) - test4