preg replace question

[justinh]

 
$unitbold = preg_replace('/^[uu][Nn][ii][Tt]/', "<b>Unit Information</b>", $objComport->ReadString());

 

What if i wanted to replace multiple words in a string? For instance, this takes the word UNIT ( or any other capitalization of it ) and makes it bold. What if I wanted to find UNIT, make that bold, Find QTY, make that bold, and find AMOUNT, and make that bold? Can you do it all in one preg_replace?

 

Thanks in advance!

[gevans]

If you know the exact string why not use str_ireplace(). It's a case incensitive string replace that accepts arrays for the needle and replacing fields

[justinh]

Well I just got Mastering Regular Expressions 3rd Edition in the mail, So I'm trying to get a grasp on the subject

[gevans]

Ahhh right, well if you are going to use this is a live environment I'd used str_ireplace()

 

But for learning why not try...

 

<?php
$string = 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.';
$patterns[0] = '/quick/';
$patterns[1] = '/brown/';
$patterns[2] = '/fox/';
$replacements[2] = 'bear';
$replacements[1] = 'black';
$replacements[0] = 'slow';
ksort($patterns);
ksort($replacements);
echo preg_replace($patterns, $replacements, $string);

//straight from php.net (hope it makes sense)
?>

[.josh]

$array = array('unit','qty','amount');
$string = "unit something qty amount more something unit blah qty";
foreach ($array as $word) {
   $string = preg_replace("~$word~i","<b>$0</b>",$string);
}

[trq]

You can simply use | to seperate your matches. eg;

 

/^unit|qty|amount/i

[.josh]

btw str_ireplace will be much faster than preg_replace, but you have to have php5+ to use it.

 

You can simply use | to seperate your matches. eg;

 

/^unit|qty|amount/i

 

You could, but alternation is "a lot" slower.

[justinh]

<?php
$search = array("UNIT", "QTY", "AMOUNT");
$replace = array("<tr><td><b>UNIT</b></td>", "<td><b>QTY</b></td>", "<td><b>AMOUNT</b></td></tr>"); 
$string = "<table>UNIT QTY AMOUNT</table>";
$tablestring = str_replace($search, $replace, $string); 
echo $tablestring;
?>

 

A lot faster.

[.josh]

except that that isn't case insensitive like you specified. 

[justinh]

Gotcha, str_ireplace is for searching and replacing case insensitive data within a string.

[gevans]

sorted!

[justinh]

Okay another quick question, Is putting regex inside a str_replace do-able?

[gevans]

nope

[justinh]

soo.. heres what I have so far..

 

 
$search = array("UNIT", "QTY", "AMOUNT", "1c", "10c");
$replace = array("<tr><td><b>UNIT</b></td>", "<td><b>QTY</b></td>", "<td><b>AMOUNT</b></td></tr>", "Pennies", "Dimes");
$string = $objComport->ReadString();
$tablestring = str_replace($search, $replace, $string); 
echo $tablestring;

 

Heres the output of $tablestring:

UNIT QTY AMOUNT
Pennies 18 0.18+
Dimes 3 0.30+
1 1 1.00+
TOTAL 1.48+

 

I need to get the 1 (under the word "Dimes") to say Dollars.

 

So would I need to throw out the str_replace and go with preg_replace? Not sure how to do this.

Thanks for the help, you guys rock

[gevans]

Ahhhh. From here it looks like you will need to use a regular expression but unfortunately that's to complicated for my little brain, lets hope on of the other guys can help....

[justinh]

Ahhh right, well if you are going to use this is a live environment I'd used str_ireplace()

 

But for learning why not try...

 

<?php
$string = 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.';
$patterns[0] = '/quick/';
$patterns[1] = '/brown/';
$patterns[2] = '/fox/';
$replacements[2] = 'bear';
$replacements[1] = 'black';
$replacements[0] = 'slow';
ksort($patterns);
ksort($replacements);
echo preg_replace($patterns, $replacements, $string);

//straight from php.net (hope it makes sense)
?>

 

I'm going to play arround with this.. Think this is what I'm looking for.

[.josh]

$string = "1 1 1.00+";
$string = preg_replace("~^1~","Dollars",$string);

[gevans]

$string = "1 1 1.00+";
$string = preg_replace("~^1~","Dollars",$string);

 

His whole string is something similar to this...

 

UNIT QTY AMOUNT Pennies 18 0.18+ Dimes 3 0.30+ 1 1 1.00+ TOTAL 1.48+

[.josh]

Where is this data coming from?

[justinh]

A money counting system connected via serial port.

[.josh]

$string = "UNIT QTY AMOUNT Pennies 18 0.18+ Dimes 3 0.30+ 1 1 1.00+ TOTAL 1.48+";
$string = preg_replace("~(.+Dimes)([^\+]+?\+\s)(\d+)(.+)~",'$1$2Dollars$4',$string);