jxrd Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 Hi all, I have a function to covert white space into non-breaking white space...however, it also replaces white space in html tags. Is there a way to avoid this? I've been trying to figure it out for hours...can't quite manage it. This is my code thus far: function parse_code_ws($code) { $ws_code_parse = array( ' ' => ' ', ' ' => ' ' ); return nl2br(str_replace(array_keys($ws_code_parse), $ws_code_parse, $code)); } However, if this were to find <a href="something">somethign</a> It would convert it to <a href="something">somethign</a> which breaks the tag. I was wondering if anyone knew how to either, remove white space from html tags, or just ignore the html tags altogether. I guess the second option would be better. Thanks in advace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 Well, you wouldn't want to remove white spaces from html tags, as this would be bad...ignoring them would definitely be better. Perhaps something along these lines? Example: $code = <<<HTML This is some text, and <a href="http://www.somesite.com/whatever.php">this link</a> is useless ! Testing more text... HTML; $pattern = '#(^|>)[^<]+#'; function parse_code_ws($a){ $ws_code_parse = array(' '=>' ', ' '=>' '); // the second array key contains 4 consecutive spaces... change this to tabs or whatever it is supposed to be return nl2br(str_replace(array_keys($ws_code_parse), array_values($ws_code_parse), $a[0])); } $code = preg_replace_callback($pattern, 'parse_code_ws', $code); echo $code; Output (via right-click view source): This is some text, and <a href="http://www.somesite.com/whatever.php">this link</a> is useless !<br /> Testing more text... Granted, you have a space before in your array values.. so I kept them there too.. not sure if you want those spaces there or not.. if not, simply remove them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jxrd Posted June 6, 2009 Author Share Posted June 6, 2009 Oooh nice. However, I was hoping to do this with just pure regex rather than a callback...I already have a rather large array of stuff to convert (it's like a bbcode class) and I was hoping to just have the one array to prevent things getting confusing... I've been messing around, and this avoids the html tags... <?php $str = 'hello space <a href="http://google">no space!!</a>'; echo preg_replace('/(?!\<.*?) (?!.*?\>)/', ' ', $str); ?> However, it also avoids the normal space as well Surely there must be a way to do this with just regex? Thanks for the reply, Jack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 I mean no offense by this, but I don't understand why you are so hooked up on pure regex solutions... (don't get me wrong, I personally love the stuff as well). But PHP offers such a wide array (no pun intended) of useful tools.. It almost feels as though you have fallen in love with say a power drill and want to use that for EVERYTHING, including cutting, hammering and plastering. Use other tools that PHP offers..it's perfectly ok to mix regex with non regex (or even use no regex at all). The sooner you realise this and explorer other alternatives (or mix alternative solutions), the better off you'll be. Programming offers different ways in problem solving.. some solutions are better than others. Don't be afraid to explorer hybrid solutions (sometimes, pure regex just won't be good enough).. you'll learn a lot doing so, instead of being insistent on one tool only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jxrd Posted June 7, 2009 Author Share Posted June 7, 2009 Yeah...I know. I just like things to be neat Managed to contain it all in one function though!! function parse_code_ws($code) { if(!is_array($code)) { $code = preg_replace_callback('/(^|>)[^<]+/', array($this, 'parse_code_ws'), nl2br($code)); return $code; } $ws_code_parse = array( ' ' => ' ', ' ' => ' ' ); return str_replace(array_keys($ws_code_parse), $ws_code_parse, reset($code)); } I just have to make sure I don't accidentally give it an array to start off with otherwise it'll be in an infinite loop... I just crashed apache testing it out... Nice one - I envy your regex knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.