[SOLVED] Working on strings..

[Michdd]

I need help making something that will search through a string and change something like this:

 

[i:1pqdiwwk] to <i> and [/i:1pqdiwwk] to </i> Where there will be random things between ':' and ']'

 

And also, something like: [*:2rvk5vh9] to <li> [/*:2rvk5vh9] to </li> and [list:2rvk5vh9] to <ul>, [/list:2rvk5vh9] to </ul>

 

If you give me an example of how to do one, I can probably do the rest myself.

[.josh]

$string = preg_replace('~\[i:[^\]]*\]~i','<i>',$string);
$string = preg_replace('~\[/i:[^\]]*\]~i','</i>',$string);

to get your started

[Michdd]

$string = preg_replace('~\[i:[^\]]*\]~i','<i>',$string);
$string = preg_replace('~\[/i:[^\]]*\]~i','</i>',$string);

to get your started

That's a bit confusing.. I've looked up the guide on preg_replace() still a bit confused. :L Makes me feel stupid since I've been working with PHP so long and feel like I know it somewhat well..

 

Does this mean I could also do something like:

 

$string = preg_replace('~\[list:[^\]]*\]~i','<list>',$string);

 

? Or would the pattern have to be totally different?

[.josh]

yep. that would look for [list:randomstuffhere] and change it to <list>

[.josh]

That is regular expressions, or regex, for short.  There is a subforum to this forum dedicated to it, with stickies to tuts, books, etc...

 

basically that pattern says;

 

~\[i:[^\]]*\]~i

 

the pattern delimiter. tells the regex engine where the start and stop of the pattern is.

literal [ . that character is significant to the engine, so we have to escape it so engine knows to look for a literal [.

more of what you want the engine to match literally

basically says to keep matching everything until you find a ]

literal ]. the closing tag to literally match.

pattern modifier. means case-insensitive (so it will work with [i:blahblah] or [i:blahblah]

 

[Michdd]

That is regular expressions, or regex, for short.  There is a subforum to this forum dedicated to it, with stickies to tuts, books, etc...

 

basically that pattern says;

 

~\[i:[^\]]*\]~i

 

the pattern delimiter. tells the regex engine where the start and stop of the pattern is.

literal [ . that character is significant to the engine, so we have to escape it so engine knows to look for a literal [.

more of what you want the engine to match literally

basically says to keep matching everything until you find a ]

literal ]. the closing tag to literally match.

pattern modifier. means case-insensitive (so it will work with [i:blahblah] or [i:blahblah]

 

Thanks! That really helped a lot, I was having a problem with the [*:stuff..] one, but with that help I knew that I just had to escape the * . That really helps A LOT. I've always been quite confused about that..

[.josh]

yes. * is a quantifier. It means match 0 or more of something.  So if you want to look for a literal *, you are right, it must be escaped.