I need to replace certain characters

[bschultz]

I have a problem.  I need to replace all ‘ and ” (both forward and backwards...both single and double quotes) with ' and "

 

So, this sentence:

 

‘Our alumni are the reason we are in the position we are today,”

 

 

Would read:

 

'Our alumni are the reason we are in the position we are today,"

 

 

The problem is, I don't even know which key on the keyboards makes the marks I'm trying to remove. 

 

I will also want to addslashes to this prior to input into the database.

 

So, how do I make those marks...is preg_replace better or worse than str_replace?  Is there something better than addslashes?  Is there something that will do both at once?

 

Thanks.

[RussellReal]

u don't need preg_replace..

 

you could just copy/paste the symbols into replace() and replace them as needed

[bschultz]

I finally got this...once I learned that these little guys were called "Smart Quotes" it made it easier to deal with.

 

For anyone else who needs it...

<?php

//Include database connection details
require_once('config.php');

//Array to store validation errors
$errmsg_arr = array();

//Validation error flag
$errflag = false;

//Connect to mysql server
$link = mysql_connect(DB_HOST, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD);
if(!$link) {
	die('Failed to connect to server: ' . mysql_error());
}

//Select database
$db = mysql_select_db(DB_DATABASE);
if(!$db) {
	die("Unable to select database");
}

//Function to sanitize values received from the form. Prevents SQL injection
function clean($str) {
	$str = @trim($str);
	if(get_magic_quotes_gpc()) {
		$str = stripslashes($str);
	}
	return mysql_real_escape_string($str);
}

//Sanitize the POST values
$sport = clean($_POST['sport']);
$headline = clean($_POST['headline']);
$story = $_POST['story'];	
$keyword = clean($_POST['keyword']);
$date = date('Y-m-d, g:i a');
    $show_on_main = clean($_POST['show_on_main']);


  $find[] = '“';  // left side double smart quote
  $find[] = 'â€';  // right side double smart quote
  $find[] = '‘';  // left side single smart quote
  $find[] = '’';  // right side single smart quote
  $find[] = '…';  // elipsis
  $find[] = '—';  // em dash
  $find[] = '–';  // en dash

  $replace[] = '\"';
  $replace[] = '\"';
  $replace[] = "\'";
  $replace[] = "\'";
  $replace[] = "...";
  $replace[] = "-";
  $replace[] = "-";


$clean_story = str_replace($find, $replace, $story);

function replace_newline($string) {
  return (string)str_replace(array("\r", "\r\n", "\n"), '', $string);
}

$cleaner_still = replace_newline($clean_story);
$cleaner_story = addslashes($cleaner_still);


	//Input Validations
if($sport == '') {
	$errmsg_arr[] = 'Sport missing';
	$errflag = true;
}
if($headline == '') {
	$errmsg_arr[] = 'Headline missing';
	$errflag = true;
}
if($clean_story == '') {
	$errmsg_arr[] = 'Story missing';
	$errflag = true;
}
	if($keyword == '') {
	$errmsg_arr[] = 'Keyword missing';
	$errflag = true;
    }
	if($show_on_main == '') {
	$errmsg_arr[] = 'show_on_main missing';
	$errflag = true;
    }

	//Check for duplicate keyword
if($login != '') {
	$qry = "SELECT * FROM stories WHERE keyword='$keyword'";
	$result = mysql_query($qry);
	if($result) {
		if(mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) {
			$errmsg_arr[] = 'That keyword  is already in use.  Please enter a different keyword.';
			$errflag = true;
		}
		@mysql_free_result($result);
	}
	else {
		die("Query failed");
	}
}

//If there are input validations, redirect back to the registration form
if($errflag) {
	$_SESSION['ERRMSG_ARR'] = $errmsg_arr;
	session_write_close();
	header("location: story_entry.php");
	exit();
}

//Create INSERT query
$qry = "INSERT INTO stories(sport, date, headline, story, keyword, show_on_main) VALUES('$sport', NOW(),'$headline','$cleaner_story','$keyword','$show_on_main')";
$result = @mysql_query($qry);

//Check whether the query was successful or not
if($result) {
	header("location: story_entry.php");
	exit();
}else {
	die("Query failed");
}
?>