[SOLVED] Another (simple) preg_replace problem

[immanuelx2]

Hey all.

 

I've been trying to replace all occurrences of $var that are NOT found between sets of brackets [], but can't figure out how.

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

Much thanks in advance!

These forums are very helpful

[nrg_alpha]

You mean something along these lines?

 

$str = 'Some text... $var Some more text... [$var] Even more text.. finally, $var and [$var]!';

$pattern = '/(^|\])[^[]+/';
$variable = '$var';
function replace($a){
global $variable;
return str_replace($variable, '*whatever*', $a[0]);
}
$str = preg_replace_callback($pattern, 'replace', $str);
echo $str;

 

Output:

Some text... *whatever* Some more text... [$var] Even more text.. finally, *whatever* and [$var]!

[immanuelx2]

Great, thanks!

 

Is there a way to do it with just a preg_replace function or does it require those extra steps?

[nrg_alpha]

Well, those 'extra steps' takes what preg finds (outside the [] characters), then to the replace function, uses str_replace to replace any $variable found. A regular preg_replace alone would not do all that.

 

All you need to do is change a) the $variable that you want to see replaced, and b) $str to the string you want to check.

[immanuelx2]

Well, those 'extra steps' takes what preg finds (outside the [] characters), then to the replace function, uses str_replace to replace any $variable found. A regular preg_replace alone would not do all that.

 

All you need to do is change a) the $variable that you want to see replaced, and b) $str to the string you want to check.

 

Hmm. Thanks for the reply... Here is my delimma though

 

I am trying to get a search highlighted fields script going, and right now I have

 

$article_short = preg_replace("/\b(".$_GET['search'].")\b/i", '<span style="background:#ffffab">\1</span>', $article['short']);

 

that goes through and encloses all instances of $_GET['search'] with that span tag. However, the problem is that if there is a with the variable present, it will replace the URL with span tags and mess it up.

 

So how can I do that? Your example used str_replace which I don't think will work for my situation.

[nrg_alpha]

Well I suppose we could exchange str_replace for a version of your preg_replace like so:

 

Example:

$article['short'] = 'Some text... Car Some more text... [Car] Even more text.. finally, Car and [Car]!';

$pattern = '#(^|\])[^[]+#';
$_GET['search'] = 'some'; // Obviously, you won't use this line, as you have your $_GET value.. I just use this as a test

function replace($a){
return preg_replace('#\b('.$_GET['search'].')\b#i', '<span style="background:#ffffab">\1</span>', $a[0]);
}

$article_short = preg_replace_callback($pattern, 'replace', $article['short']);
echo $article_short;

[immanuelx2]

Well I suppose we could exchange str_replace for a version of your preg_replace like so:

 

Example:

$article['short'] = 'Some text... Car Some more text... [Car] Even more text.. finally, Car and [Car]!';

$pattern = '#(^|\])[^[]+#';
$_GET['search'] = 'some'; // Obviously, you won't use this line, as you have your $_GET value.. I just use this as a test

function replace($a){
return preg_replace('#\b('.$_GET['search'].')\b#i', '<span style="background:#ffffab">\1</span>', $a[0]);
}

$article_short = preg_replace_callback($pattern, 'replace', $article['short']);
echo $article_short;

 

This worked

 

Thanks a lot for helping with this complex problem. However, now I realize that it still return articles if a match is found in the URLS... so I have to figure out a way for MySQL to recognize where the URLS are and not include them in the LIKE '%search%' statement

 

[nrg_alpha]

You can post that issue in the MySQL forum and flag this thread as resolved.