[SOLVED] Trouble with preg_replace and a lookup interpolated into the replace string.

[dbmathis]

Hello phpfreaks!

 

This works..

 

for( $i=0; $i<sizeof( $narray ); $i++ ) {
    $narray[$i] = preg_replace("/(\w{3})-(\d{2})-(\d{4})/", "$3$1$2", $narray[$i]);
}

 

But this doesn't..

 

$month = array(
               'Jan' => '01',
               'Feb' => '02',
               'Mar' => '03',
               'Apr' => '04',
               'May' => '05',
               'Jun' => '06',
               'Jul' => '07',
               'Aug' => '08',
               'Sep' => '09',
               'Oct' => '10',
               'Nov' => '11',
               'Dec' => '12',
               );

for( $i=0; $i<sizeof( $narray ); $i++ ) {
    $narray[$i] = preg_replace("/(\w{3})-(\d{2})-(\d{4})/", "$3$month[$1]$2", $narray[$i]);
}

 

I get this error with the code that doesn't work...

 

[sun Jul 19 01:07:05 2009] [error] [client 12.5.151.3] PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected '$', expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING in /home/sthoma45/public_html/bulletins/list-bulletins.php on line 41, referer: http://217.110.71.74/~sthoma45/bulletins/

 

Can someone steer me in the right direction?

 

Best Regards

 

David

[.josh]

try this:

 

"$3{$month[$1]}$2"

[dbmathis]

Thanks Crayon Violent, but I am still getting the same error after making that change.

[Daniel0]

Variable names cannot start with numbers. Maybe PHP is treating your regex back references as variables.

[dbmathis]

Variable names cannot start with numbers. Maybe PHP is treating your regex back references as variables.

 

You mean to say that maybe PHP is treating back reference $1 that's placed inside of $month[] as a normal variable? Perhaps it is, but if that's the case what's the most elegant solution?

[MadTechie]

I don't think you can read from the array like that when using preg_replace,

for example

'\3'.$month['\1'].'\2'

would look for

$month['\1']

and not

$month['Jan']

 

I would recommend using a callback,

 

like this

<?php
for( $i=0; $i<sizeof( $narray ); $i++ ) {
    $narray[$i] = preg_replace_callback("/(\w{3})-(\d{2})-(\d{4})/", "convertDate", $narray[$i]);
}

function convertDate($match)
{
	global $month;
	return $match[3].$month[$match[1]].$match[2];
}
?>

 

EDIT:

 

In your previous code instead of using "$3$1$2" use "\3\1\2"

[dbmathis]

Nice! Thank you!

[MadTechie]

Welcome.. I updated my last post with some extra details

 

also if this is solved can you click Topic solved (bottom left)

 

and of course welcome to PHP Freaks