I need to find a string in a string then replace that and text around it

Question

i have a string that has markers and I need to replace with text from a database. this text string is stored in a database and the markers are for auto fill with data from a different part of the database.

$text = '<span data-field="la_lname" data-table="user_properties">
{Listing Agent Last Name}
</span>
<br>RE: The new offer<br>Please find attached....'

if i can find the data marker by: strpos($text, 'la_lname'); can i use that to select everything in and between the <span> and </span> tags..

so the new string looks like:

'Sommers<br>RE: The new offer<br>Please find attached....'

I thought I could explode the string based on the <span> tags but that opens up a lot of problems as I need to keep the text intact and formated as it is. I just want to insert the data and leave everything else untouched.

Please be more specific: How do you (want to) translate the given span to the Agents name "Sommers"? Where does this information come from? Why didn't you just print out the name right away? Are you able to modify the given Span-Output? — dognose, Aug 29 '13 at 19:46
the la_lname comes from a list of last names in a database. The template text comes from the database and then we go through and make a copy for each name with the name inserted in the placeholder — Smith Smithy, Aug 29 '13 at 19:54
Possible duplciate of: [How do you parse and process HTML/XML in PHP?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3577641/how-do-you-parse-and-process-html-xml-in-php) — hakre, Aug 29 '13 at 20:05

alxgb · Answer 1 · 2013-08-29T19:56:34.863

0

You could try preg_replace or use a DOM Parser, which is far more useful for navigating HTML-like-structure.

I should add that while regular expressions should work just fine in this example, you may need to do more complex things in the future or traverse more intrincate DOM structures for your replacements, so a DOM Parser is the way to go in this case.

edited Aug 29 '13 at 19:56

answered Aug 29 '13 at 19:46

alxgb

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i see getelementsbytag name but i am not seeing where i can maybe select by data-sometype and then replace the tags and the innerhtml with some other text – Smith Smithy Aug 29 '13 at 20:04
@SmithSmithy: With an xpath query. – hakre Aug 29 '13 at 20:05

Ali · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-29T20:06:51.257

0

To get what's between two parts of a string for example if you have

<span>SomeText</span>

If you want to get SomeText then I suggest using a function that gets whatever is between two parts that you put as parameters

<?php
function getbetween($content,$start,$end) {
$r = explode($start, $content);
if (isset($r[1])){
    $r = explode($end, $r[1]);
    return $r[0];
}
return '';
} 

$text = '<span>SomeText</span>';
$start = '<span>';
$end = '</span>';
$required_text = getbetween($text,$start,$end);
$full_line = $start.$required_text.$end;
$text = str_replace($full_line, 'WHAT TO REPLACE IT WITH HERE',$text);

edited Aug 29 '13 at 20:06

answered Aug 29 '13 at 19:51

Ali

3,429
4
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ok, i see how this works but how do i find the placeholders – Smith Smithy Aug 29 '13 at 19:56
You need to add something unique to it.. for example make it .. only the start has to be unique.. the end will be the closest one to the start. – Ali Aug 29 '13 at 19:58
ok i can make that work... how do i replace the entire line INCLUDING the span? ... becomes sommers – Smith Smithy Aug 29 '13 at 20:03
I edited my answer to include that so you can replace the entire line including the spans and what's between them – Ali Aug 29 '13 at 20:07
oh duh, that makes sense... Thank You. – Smith Smithy Aug 29 '13 at 20:13

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 30 '13 at 11:32

0

Using PHP Simple HTML DOM Parser

$html = str_get_html('<span data-field="la_lname" data-table="user_properties">{Listing Agent Last Name}</span><br>RE: The new offer<br>Please find attached....');
$html->find('span')->innerText = 'New value of span';

answered Aug 30 '13 at 11:32

Andrii Mishchenko

2,588
20
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I like this... so can i find {specific text} and replace it with {new text} the brackets are required. – Smith Smithy Aug 30 '13 at 23:09

I need to find a string in a string then replace that and text around it

3 Answers3