[SOLVED] string manipulation

[mfindlay]

Hi, In the code below I am trying to format an unordered list with php, I am using JavaScript to add tags to a textarea and then want to format the list in the php script...so:

 

<ul><li>List 1<br>List 2<br>List 3</li></ul>

//would become
<ul>
<li>list 1</li>
<li>list 2</li>
...
</ul>

 

I have been using lots of str_replace to strip esscape chars etc, which is why the code is so far formatted as above, below is what I have so far..

 

$add_data = "\"" . $explanation . "\"" . "," . "\"" . $question_title . "\"" . "," . "\"" . $question_stem . "\"\n";
$add_data = str_replace("\n" , "<BR>" , $add_data);
$add_data = str_replace("\r" , "" , $add_data);
$add_data = str_replace("<UL>" , "<UL><LI>" , $add_data);
$add_data = str_replace("<\UL>" , "<\LI><\UL>" , $add_data);
$add_data = str_replace("\"<BR>" , "\"\n" , $add_data);

 

any help apreciated....

 

Cheers!!

[mfindlay]

Hello again...

 

with regard to above, I suppose I want to find the start (<ul><li>) and end (</li></ul>) of the portion of the string and replace all the occurrences of <br> with </li><li> (this part is easy), I'm just not sure how to find the start and end points??

 

again any help appreciated....

 

Cheers!

[mfindlay]

sorry some code was emmitted....

 

with regard to above, I suppose I want to find the start (<ul><li>) and end (</li></ul>) of the portion of the string and replace all the occurrences of

<br>

with </li><li> (this part is easy), I'm just not sure how to find the start and end points??

 

again any help appreciated....

 

Cheers!

[mfindlay]

sorry to be a nuisance... bump!!

[kenrbnsn]

Here's one method:

<?php
$str = '<ul><li>List 1<br>List 2<br>List 3</li></ul>';
$new_str = implode("</li>\n<li>",explode("<br>",$str));
$new_str = nl2br(str_replace(array("<ul>","</ul>"),array("<ul>\n","\n</ul>"),$new_str)) . "\n";
echo $new_str;
?>

 

Ken

[mfindlay]

Thanks Ken, the list is just part of a string, so I guess the actual string could look more like...

 

<b>some text</b>
<br><br>
<ul><li>List 1<br>List 2<br>List 3</li></ul>
some more text...

 

so I need to search for the start and end of the list and just change the breaks in the middle

 

Thanks

[mfindlay]

figured it out!! this is what I came up with...

 

for ($ul = 0; $ul < substr_count($add_data , "<UL><LI>"); $ul++)
{
	$find_ul_start = '<UL><LI>';
	$find_ul_end = '</LI></UL>';
	$ul_start = strpos($add_data, $find_ul_start);
	$ul_end = strpos($add_data, $find_ul_end);
	$length = $ul_end - $ul_start;
}

$new_string = substr($add_data,$ul_start,$length);

$new_string1 = str_replace("<BR>" , "</LI><LI>" , $new_string);
$add_data = str_replace($new_string , $new_string1 , $add_data);

 

Cheers