get text between 2 string.

[MadnessRed]

how would I go about detecting the text between two strings. For example.

 

blah blah blah [countdown]12467946446[/countdown] more blah

 

the script would search for anything between [countdown] and [/countdown]

 

then make the output $countdown

 

that way I could do

 

countdown($countdown,false).

 

I have already made the countdown function and know how to only get numbers from the string. I'm just not sure how to find it.

 

Would you do something like find the position of the [countdown] and [/countdown] in the text and then only take that bit?

[effigy]

Will there be only one pair, or multiples?

[MadnessRed]

potentially multiples. for example there might be

 

$string = "Woo, [countdown]1230163200[/countdown] until Christmas. That means its [countdown]1230768000[/countdown] until 2009.";

 

And then something like

 

$orig = '#[countdown][^"]*[/countdown]#'; 
$cd = countdown($1);
$rep = $cd['days']." Days, ".$cd['hours']." Hours and ".$cd['minutes']." Minutes. "
$string = preg_replace($orig,$rep,$string); 

[MadnessRed]

I have got this far.

 

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query2)){
$entry = $row['Entry'];
$entry = preg_replace('#[countdown][^"]*[/countdown]#',countdown("\\1",false),$entry); //Line 109
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td style='text-align: left'><h3><u><strong>".$row['Name']."</strong></u></h3></td>";
echo "<td style='text-align: right'><i>".date("jS F Y", $row[Date])."</i></td>";
echo "</tr><tr>";
echo "<td colspan='2' style='text-align: left'>".$entry."<hr /><br /></td>";
echo "</tr>";
}

 

 

And get this error.

 

Fatal error: Cannot pass parameter 1 by reference in /home/evo/public_html/madnessred/pages/home.php on line 109

 

[effigy]

<pre>
<?php
$string = "Woo, [countdown]1230163200[/countdown] until Christmas. That means its [countdown]1230768000[/countdown] until 2009.";
function countdown ($in) {
	### Calculations here.
	return $in;
}
echo preg_replace('%\[countdown\](.*?)\[/countdown\]%e', 'countdown("$1")', $string);
?> 
</pre>

[MadnessRed]

firstly what does

<pre>

do?

 

secondly, where the function is, can I just put the include there?

 

<?php
$string = $row['Entry'];
include('countdown.php');
$entry =  preg_replace('%\[countdown\](.*?)\[/countdown\]%e', 'countdown("$1")', $string);
?>

[effigy]

firstly what does

<pre>

do?

 

I use it in all of my examples because it's oftentimes required for printing arrays and such; see http://www.w3schools.com/TAGS/tag_pre.asp. You can disregard.

 

secondly, where the function is, can I just put the include there?

 

Yes.

[MadnessRed]

does the function have to be there?

 

I mean if I wanted to add more functions to that file, could I just include it at the top?

[effigy]

Be where? I used a function in my example because I didn't have an include. Whatever functions you call have to exist.