Ignore span tags in Preg Replace

[gerkintrigg]

is there a way of telling a preg replace function that it is to ignore the text within a tag like this:

this text is fair game to be replaced by the function
<span class="flagged_already">but this is not</span>, 
this is though.

[emopoops]

no but u can use this:

<?php

$text = your string containing the span tage;
$html = array('<span class="flagged_already">', '</span>');
$replacements = array ('', '');///replace with nothing

$text = str_replace($html, $replacements, $text);
?>

[gerkintrigg]

hmm.

It's just that the span tag is created as I use my original script to replace a word (and highlight it) but then potentially goes over it again and highlights smaller words within the highlighted script.

 

so if I had a string like this:

this is the code to highlight

and the string is an exact phrase match for a record in the database, the script will replace and highlight it like this:

other text <span class="flagged_already"> this is the code to highlight</span> other text

That's all fine so-far but then it might match the word "code" too so that it outputs:

other text <span class="flagged_already"> this is the <span class="flagged_already">code</span> to highlight</span> other text

 

This could be an issue because it might over-highlight words like "you're" and "you".

[emopoops]

if its the sama span tag the i think your good