[SOLVED] String Manipulation

[adrek]

i have this function that takes a a series of numbers serpearted by a comma and inserts a period into that place in a string.

 

function addChar($string, $csv){
$array = explode(",", $csv);
$init = strlen($string);
if($init < $array[sizeof($array)-1])
	$init = $array[sizeof($array)-1];
$k=0;
for($i=0; $i<=$init; $i++){
	if($i == $array[$k]){
		$string2 .= ".";
		$k++;
	}
	$string2 .= $string[$i];
}
return $string2;

}

 

like if i input addChar("Dr No", "2") that works fine but if i do addChar("A.B.C.", "1,3,5") i get "A.BC..". anyone know what might be wrong?

[adrek]

like if i input addChar("Dr No", "2") that works fine but if i do addChar("A.B.C.", "1,3,5") i get "A.BC..". anyone know what might be wrong?

 

sorry this was a type. if i put in ("Dr No", "2") i get Dr. No but if i put in addChar("ABC", "1,3,5") i get "A.BC.."

[MadTechie]

but if i put in addChar("ABC", "1,3,5") i get "A.BC.."

 

What was you expecting ?

i assume the number mean after X chars from the left

So

A. <-- . = After #1

A.B. <-- . = After #3

A.B.C <-- after 4 no change

A.B.C. <-- after 5 add one which is the same as adding after 4

 

[adrek]

the numbers are the spot of the string where the period would go. and since strings are an array of characters the index starts at 0. so basically the 2nd, 4th, 6th characters should be periods which would be represented like so respectively string[1], string[3], string[5]

[Ken2k7]

The function should be more accurately named to addDot instead of addChar. It really doesn't make sense to label it 1,3,5.  Try 1,2,3 with this function -

 

<?php
function addDot ($str, $csv) {
        $csv = explode(',',$csv);
        $str = str_split($str);
        foreach ($csv as $key) {
                $str[$key] = isset($str[$key])? '.' . $str[$key] : '.';
        }
        return join($str);
}

$e = addDot('ABC', '1,2,3');
var_dump($e);

[adrek]

i have a site with a series of articles and what im trying to do is strip out the punctuation so that the urls are easier to read. A.B.C. is the orginal name of the article so i convert that to abc for the url.

 

i pass it through a function to get the place of the characters

 

<?php
function charPlace($string, $char){
for($i=0; $i<strlen($string); $i++){
	if($string[$i] == $char)
		$value .= $i.",";
}
$value = substr($value, 0, strlen($value)-1);
return $value;
}
?>

 

so executing

charPlace("A.B.C.", ".");

 

would return 1,3,5 and i store those values in a cookie.

 

after doing that i strip the punctation. so the final url will be http://mysite.com/articles/2009/abc/

 

when the page is accessed the cookie with the charPlace values will be read and the addDot function would be called to restore the punctuation and turning it back into A.B.C. to get the article from the database. the problem that im running into is the string is not restored to what it was, thus not returning any results.

[Ken2k7]

Uh, did you just change the problem?

 

Anyway, if you want to remove the dots in 'A.B.C' so it looks like 'ABC', then you can do -

$str = 'A.B.C.';
$str = str_replace('.','',$str);

[adrek]

sorry if im not clear. no i didnt change the problem. ive got the script removing the dots. but in the database the title is with the dots so in order me for me to get the result that im looking for i need to put the dots back.

 

here is the psuedocode for what should be happening

 

loop:

get article title

get the placement of the dots in the title and store them in a cookie

generate links based off the titles and make them search engine friendly. ex: "Dr. Sues" becomes "dr-sues"

when link is clicked

add the dots to "dr-sues" based off values from the cookie

restore spaces

get results from database using the string "dr. sues".

 

if it helps ill just post all relevant code

 

<?php
// adds the dots to the title that were previouly taken out
function addDot($string, $csv){
$array = explode(",", $csv);
$init = strlen($string);
if($init < $array[sizeof($array)-1])
	$init = $array[sizeof($array)-1];
$k=0;
print $init;
for($i=0; $i<=$init; $i++){
	if($i == $array[$k]){
		$string2 .= ".";
		$k++;
	}
	$string2 .= $string[$i];
}
return $string2;

}

// gets the pace of the specified character
function charPlace($string, $char){
for($i=0; $i<strlen($string); $i++){
	if($string[$i] == $char)
		$value .= $i.",";
}
$value = substr($value, 0, strlen($value)-1);
return $value;
}
// creates cleaner URIs based of the article title
function createLink($title){
$link = strtolower(str_replace(" ",  "-", $title));
$link = str_replace(".", "", $link);
return $link;
}

// get the articles from the database
$sql = "SELECT * FROM articles";
// if an article title is set then find that specified article
if (!empty($_GET['title'])) {
$csv = addslashes($_COOKIE['csv']);
$title = addslashes($_GET['title']);
$title = str_replace("-", " ", $title);
$title = addDot($title, $csv);

$sql .= " WHERE title='$title";
$article = true;
}

$query = mysql_query($sql);
if(!$article){
// print out links
while($array = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
	$title = $array['title'];
	$csv = charPlace($title, ".");
	$uri = createLink($title);
	$link .= "<a href=\"http://mysite.com/$uri/\" onClick=\"createCookie('csv', '$csv');\">$title</a>";
}
echo $link;
}
elseif ($article){
//Display Article
}
?>

 

createCookie() is a javascript function im using to create the cookie with the csv varibles

[Ken2k7]

Wait, so what's wrong with the function I wrote?

[adrek]

wow im stupid. your function works great. thanks alot. i just didnt rewrite the charPlace function to work right with it.  thanks alot i appreciate your help.