strip everything but alphanumeric, _ - ? ' "

[dadamssg87]

i'm trying to figure out how to write a function that strips anything other than:

1. alpha-numeric characters

2. underscore _

3. hyphen -

4. question mark ?

5. apostrophe '

6. quotation mark "

 

I've got the alphanumeric part down, i just don't know how to add those other characters

 

str_replace("[^A-Za-z0-9]", "", $string_to_be_stripped );

[requinix]

1. All of them except the hyphen can go in directly without anything special (except having to escape the quote for PHP). The hyphen needs to go in a place where it can't act as a range separator; easiest way is to put it at the beginning or end of the set.

2. \w includes letters, numbers, and underscores.

[^\w?'"-]

[dadamssg87]

sweeeet. What if i wanted to add commas and exclamation points?

 

[requinix]

Sure: they're not special either.

[dadamssg87]

I think i'm missing something. The following string is exactly the same after it goes through str_replace...?

 

$str = 'http://feeds.feedburner.com/techcrunch/startups?format=xml';
echo str_replace("[^\w?',!\"-]", "", $str );

[salathe]

str_replace...?

 

str_replace() does not replace based on a regular expression, you're looking for preg_replace().

[Jessica]

Are you just trying to get the URL without the query string?

[.josh]

yeah...explain what you actually want here, what your goal is... because I can't imagine you really wanting this:

 

"httpfeedsfeedburnercomtechcrunchstartups?formatxml"

[salathe]

I can't imagine you really wanting this:

 

"httpfeedsfeedburnercomtechcrunchstartups?formatxml"

 

Try re-reading the first post.

[Jessica]

I can't imagine you really wanting this:

 

"httpfeedsfeedburnercomtechcrunchstartups?formatxml"

 

Try re-reading the first post.

 

And? I read it. It says he wants to strip anything other than alphanumeric and 5 special characters, which is what josh left in the string. Alphanumeric and those characters.

[.josh]

sally is just looking for a thinly-veiled excuse to flirt with me; see how he blushes.

[salathe]

And? I read it. It says he wants to strip anything other than alphanumeric and 5 special characters, which is what josh left in the string. Alphanumeric and those characters.

 

Good work on reading it, really.  I guess you totally failed to see my point, which was that .josh "couldn't imagine" something that was very clearly asked for in the first post.  Did you think I was trying to say .josh said something wrong?

[Jessica]

Well yeah, I did. I figured out of the number of people replying here, it was likely that someone was getting it wrong. *shrug*

[dadamssg87]

Thanks for the responses! buuuut it's still not doing what i need to be doing. The provided $str being a url is just an example string because it contains characters i'm wanting to strip. I won't strictly be using this on urls.

 

 

	$str = 'http://feeds.feedburner.com/techcrunch/startups?format=xml';

	echo preg_replace("[^\w?',!\"-]", "", $str );

[Christian F.]

You're a bit confused about the Regular Expression syntax, as you're missing the delimiters. Add a slash at the start and end of the pattern, and it should work.

[.josh]

I just assumed that his "example" was an example of what he's wanting the regex to act on, which didn't seem to have any practical or apparent purpose, despite it *technically* being what he asked for.  In my experience, when someone is asking for help trying to do something, they often end up asking for something other than what they *really* want, due to being unclear about the situation in the first place!  But I guess you know what they say about assuming...

 

dadamssg87, in the future, if you want avoid having your time wasted by rebels like me who refuse to follow the "Just gimme what I asked for, don't question why" philosophy, I suggest giving more relevant examples.