preg_match, str_replace and all that jazz

Question

I have a string which contains several keywords in square backets which I want to identify, extract, and replace with something else:

For example:

'You will win [winnings] or [slice].'

I want to identify all the terms within the squares, take those terms and replace them with certain values.

So it should end up like this:

'You will win 100 or 95%.'

Any ideas?

Possible dublicate: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2403122/regular-expression-to-extract-text-between-square-brackets — Peon, Dec 28 '12 at 13:22

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 28 '12 at 13:16

3

piece of cake

$search = array('[winnings]', '[slice]');
$replace = array(100, '95%');

echo str_replace($search, $replace, 'You will win [winnings] or [slice].');

answered Dec 28 '12 at 13:16

Maxim Krizhanovsky

25,260
5
51
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Sean Bright · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-28T13:32:51.657

1

$replacements = array(
    'winnings' => '100'
    , 'slice'  => '95%'
    , 'foobar' => 'Sean Bright'
);

$subject = '[foobar], You will win [winnings] or [slice]!';

$result = preg_replace_callback(
    '/\[([^\]]+)\]/',
    function ($x) use ($replacements) {
        if (array_key_exists($x[1], $replacements))
            return $replacements[$x[1]];
        return '';
    },
    $subject);

echo $result;

Note that this will completely fall apart if you have unbalanced brackets (i.e. [[foo])

For PHP versions less than 5.3:

$replacements = array(
    'winnings' => '100'
    , 'slice'  => '95%'
    , 'foobar' => 'Sean Bright'
);

function do_replacement($x)
{
    global $replacements;

    if (array_key_exists($x[1], $replacements))
        return $replacements[$x[1]];
    return '';
}

$subject = '[foobar], You will win [winnings] or [slice]!';

$result = preg_replace_callback(
    '/\[([^\]]+)\]/',
    'do_replacement',
    $subject);

echo $result;

edited Dec 28 '12 at 13:32

answered Dec 28 '12 at 13:17

Sean Bright

114,945
17
134
143

Like the look of this, but I'm getting an error with the code? – ojsglobal Dec 28 '12 at 13:26
What error are you getting? I've tested this locally and it works. – Sean Bright Dec 28 '12 at 13:27
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_FUNCTION in /home/slimming/public_html/aardvark.php on line 12 which is : function ($x) use ($replacements) { – ojsglobal Dec 28 '12 at 13:28
What version of PHP? Must be older than 5.3 – Sean Bright Dec 28 '12 at 13:29
Added a solution for PHP < 5.3 – Sean Bright Dec 28 '12 at 13:33

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 28 '12 at 13:21

0

And if you want to use a regex to find matches:

$content = "You will win [winnings] or [slice].";
preg_match_all('/\[([a-z]+)\]/i', $content, $matches);

$content = str_replace($matches[0], array('100', '95%'), $content);

var_dump($content);

answered Dec 28 '12 at 13:21

j0k

22,303
28
77
86

preg_match, str_replace and all that jazz

3 Answers3