PHP: str_replace

User Contributed Notes
str_replace

will at 4lx dot net
12-Apr-2005 08:06


This function is an example of replacing month numbers with the actual textual value.  



<?php

function createMonths($month_start,$month_end) {

    $month = array("1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6",

     "7", "8", "9", "10", "11", "12");

    $month_replace = array("January","February","March","April","May","June",

    "July","August","September","October","November", "December");

    $x_end = $month_end + 1; 

    // Add one to the value of the end month

    for ($x = $month_start; $x < $x_end; $x++) {

        $new_months .= $x.","; 

        // Count from the begin month to the end month

        }

        $new_months = substr($new_months,0,-1); 

        // Cut the last comma off the end month

        $newmonth = explode(",", $new_months); 

        // Place each int month into an array

        $newsmonth = str_replace($month,$month_replace,$newmonth); 

        // Replace the int month with a textual string

        var_dump ($newsmonth); 

        // Dump the data

    }

createMonths(1,3);

/* Will print array(3) 

{ [0]=> string(7) "January" [1]=> string(8) "February" [2]=> string(5) "March" } */

?>

james dot robert dot lee at gmail dot com
12-Apr-2005 03:01


"Note:  As of PHP 5.0.0 the number of matched and replaced needles (search) will be returned in count which is passed by reference. Prior to PHP 5.0.0 this parameter is not available."



In version 4.3.10 and I assume others before 5.0.0, str_replace returns null if you pass it a $count.



<?php

$count = 0;

$str = "This is a string";

$str = str_replace("a", "a null", $str, $count);



if (is_null($str)) {  // TRUE before php 5.0.0

    echo "NULL";

}

?>



Fortunately, this does produce a warning: "Wrong parameter count for str_replace()"

a_baboshin at mail dot ru
04-Apr-2005 09:00


I wrote 2 function's file_replace() and dir_replace() with str_replace() signature



    function file_replace ($search, $replace, $filename) {

        if (file_exists($filename)) {

            $cnt = file_get_contents($filename);

            if (strstr($cnt, $search)) {

                $cnt = str_replace($search, $replace, $cnt);

                return file_put_contents($filename, $cnt);

            }

            return true;

        }

        return false;

    }

    

    function dir_replace ($search, $replace, $dirname, $recursive = true) {

        $dir = opendir($dirname);

        while ($file = readdir($dir)) {

            if ($file != '.' && $file != '..') {

                if (is_dir($dirname.'/'.$file)) {

                    if ($recursive) {

                        dir_replace($search, $replace, $dirname.'/'.$file);

                    }

                } else {

                    file_replace($search, $replace, $dirname.'/'.$file);

                }

            }

        }

    }



usage ('search', 'replace', '/usr/home/root');

joaquin at metaltoad dot com
24-Mar-2005 06:04


This is an another accent remover which converts foreign characters to their English equivilent. It converts any  character's to their HTML value and then uses preg_replace to find the desired value.  The function is based on a earlier entry: replace_accents.



function remove_accents( $string )

{

    $string = htmlentities($string);

    return preg_replace("/&([a-z])[a-z]+;/i","$1",$string);

}



example:



$string = "����C���";

echo remove_accents( $string );



// will output: eecyCECA

Gabriel W�rmby
16-Mar-2005 07:36


Note that when using the str_replace function it will always replace the already replaced parts in a String even if you just allow replacement of one character at a time.

[php]

$thecode = '453461';

for ($t=0; $t<=5; $t++){

$index = substr($thecode,$t,1);

$digits = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6);

$newdigits  = array(4, 5, 2, 7, 8, 0);

$realcode.= str_replace($digits, $newdigits, $index);

}

/*Would print out '782707' instead of '7827704' as it should with this construction.*/

echo $realcode;

[/php]

nielsvandenberge at hotmail dot com
14-Mar-2005 04:12


I got a few things to add on the subject Jesse posted about the smiley replacement. 



Bad HTML code can be removed with the php function strip_tags().



Further I would like to add my URL- and IMG-replace function. The problem was that it would only replace one IMG or URL node, but since the functions calls itself until there aren't IMG or URL-nodes anymore they will all be replaced.



Note that the replace function is case sensitive, so for example [b] won't be replaced.



Regards,



Here's the code:

<?php

function replaceMessage($message) {

    $message     = strip_tags($message, '<b></b><i></i><u></u><a></a><img>');

    

    $message    = str_replace ("\n", "<BR>", "$message");

   // When you store the $message in a database you might get errors cause of the quotes

   $message    = str_replace("[singleQuote]", "'", $message);

   $message    = str_replace("[doubleQuote]", "\"", $message);



    $message    = str_replace ("[U]", "<U>", "$message");

    $message    = str_replace ("[/U]", "</U>", "$message");

    $message    = str_replace ("[I]", "<I>", "$message");

    $message    = str_replace ("[/I]", "</I>", "$message");

    $message    = str_replace ("[B]", "<B>", "$message");

    $message    = str_replace ("[/B]", "</B>", "$message");



    $message    = replaceUrl($message);

    $message     = replaceImg($message);

    

    return $message;

}



function replaceImg($message) {

    // Make image from [img]htp://.... [/img] 

    if (strpos($message, "[img]")){

        $begImg = strpos($message, "[img]");

        $endImg = strpos($message, "[/img]");

        $img = substr($message, $begImg, $endImg-$begImg+6);

    

        $link         = substr($img, 5, $endImg - $begImg -5);

        $htmlImg    = "<img src=$link border='0'>";

        

        $message = str_replace($img, $htmlImg, $message);

        // searches for other [img]-nodes

        $message = replaceImg($message);

    }

    return $message;

}



function replaceUrl($message) {

    // Make link from [url]htp://.... [/url] or [url=http://.... ]text[/url]

    if (strpos($message, "[url")){

        $begUrl = strpos($message, "[url");

        $endUrl = strpos($message, "[/url]");

        $url = substr($message, $begUrl, $endUrl-$begUrl+6);

        $posBracket = strpos($url, "]");

    

        if ($posBracket != null){

            if ($posBracket == 4){  

                // [url]http://.... [/url]

                $link         = substr($url, 5, $endUrl - $begUrl -5);

                $htmlUrl    = "<a href=$link target='_blank'>$link</A>";

            } else {            

                // [url=http://....]text[/url]

                $link         = substr($url, 5, $posBracket-5);

                $text         = substr($url, $posBracket+1, strpos($url, "[/url]") - $posBracket-1);

                $htmlUrl    = "<a href=$link target='main'>$text</A>";

            }

        }

                

        $message = str_replace($url, $htmlUrl, $message);

        // searches for other [url]-nodes

        $message = replaceUrl($message);

    }

    return $message;

}

?>

Jesse
07-Mar-2005 11:41


str_replace can do many things, including smileys, bad word replacement, and even manually taking out bad HTML code. doing smileys is easy, first, create a jpg called smiley and add the following code to your form handling script:

$posting = str_replace(":)", "<img src=smiley.jpg width=50 height=50>", $posting);

also, taking out bad words is easy, too:

$posting = str_replace("badword", "*******", $posting);

then, lets say you want a form handler that keeps some HTML code to let people do things like post images, but not let them change the page's formatting. use str_replace!

$posting = str_replace("BADHTMLCODE", "", $posting);

finally, you can even make a scripting language like vBcode, like this:

$posting = str_replace("[IMG]", "<img src>", $posting);

$posting = str_replace("[URL]", "<a href>", $posting);

$posting = str_replace("[/URL]", "</a>", $posting);

$posting = str_replace("[CODE]", "<pre><p>code:</p>", $posting);

$posting = str_replace("[/CODE]", "</pre>", $posting);

The list of things you can do goes on and on!

somewhereinspace at deepspace dot com
07-Mar-2005 07:33


This is an reply to Adam F-K's alphanumeric check:

I guess my function does the same, but a bit quicker



<?php

    // Checks, if the String contains only allowed Chars

    // edit the RegEx if you need other chars as well

    // for example: [^A-Za-z��������������������������� .-]

    // return true or false

    function isAlphaNumeric( $str )

    {

        $len_org = strlen( $str );

        $len_chk = strlen( ereg_replace( "[^A-Za-z0-9]", "", $str ) );

        return $len_org == $len_chk;

    }

?>



Ronald L.

Anca Zaharia(anca dot zaharia at grapefruit dot ro)
04-Mar-2005 04:33


Simple function to strip multiple white spaces in a string:



$sample = preg_replace('/\s\s+/', ' ', $sample);

dambkruck AT hotmail dot com
23-Feb-2005 09:37


I'm not sure that this is the right place, but I believe that it is useful for the accents problem.  I just wrote and tested this script because I'm using a variable from $_GET to open a text file and I do not want to allow anyone to go searching thru my folders by entering ../ (or other malicious stuff that I don't know about).  Anyway, this function returns true if the string passed to it is only made up of letters (upper/lower case) or numbers.



<?PHP

//-------------------------------------------------------------------

//allowed chars from 48-57,65-90,97-122 AKA 0-9, A-Z, a-z

//-------------------------------------------------------------------

function isAlphaNumeric($checkThisString){

    $result = true;

    $i=0;

    while($i<strlen($checkThisString) && $result){

        $char = substr($checkThisString,$i,1);

        $charNum = ord($char);

        if( !(($charNum>47 && $charNum < 58) || ($charNum>64 && $charNum < 91) || ($charNum>96 && $charNum < 123)) )

            $result = false;        

        $i++;

    }

    return $result;

}

?>



cheers,



Adam F-K

cjo at ciqua dot org
17-Feb-2005 06:29


In order to get rid of accents, we don't need to reach as far out as the ascii tables. HTML has the lovely property that accents are added to the character X in the form &Xmodif; where modif stands for the modification of the original character: acute, grave, uml, etc.

There are far fewer accents than accented letters so this should do the trick whether or not it is intended for HTML or not:



function replace_accents($in_string)

{

    $out_string = htmlentities($in_string);



    $out_string = str_replace("uml;", "", $out_string);

    $out_string = str_replace("acute;", "", $out_string);

    $out_string = str_replace("grave;", "", $out_string);

    $out_string = str_replace("cedil;", "", $out_string);

    $out_string = str_replace("ring;", "", $out_string);

    $out_string = str_replace("circ;", "", $out_string);

    $out_string = str_replace("tilde;", "", $out_string);

    $out_string = str_replace("lig;", "", $out_string);

    $out_string = str_replace("slash;", "", $out_string);



    $out_string = str_replace("&", "", $out_string);

    return $out_string;

}



The function above assumes there are only letter in the input (no ampersand, < and >, quotes, etc). I hope this helps!

hermes at andycostell dot com
11-Dec-2004 01:57


A simple function to take out the double line breaks "%0D%0A" from a string made from text being wrapped in a textarea and turn them into single line breaks. 



<?php

function remove_extra_linebreaks($string) {

      $new_string=urlencode ($string);

    $new_string=ereg_replace("%0D", " ", $new_string);

    $new_string=urldecode  ($new_string);

  return $new_string;

}

?>



I use it when taking text from a textarea with wrap="hard" that I'm emailing out on the next page, for instance. Otherwise there's an extra empty line between each line in the emailed text, which looks nasty!

20-Nov-2004 01:08


---[ Editor's Note ]---


This way works, but it's easier to just use nl2br() instead, which supports both \n and \r, whereas this function does not support both.


---[ End Note ]---





This is an easy way to replace the breaks and paragrafs submitted via a Textarea to <br>s in the output. 





<?Php


$test="Teststring


test test


test test test test";





echo str_replace(Chr(13), "<br>", $test);


?>

Jennings at trad dot uji dot es
10-Nov-2004 07:09


Removing accents.

It is a pain to list all the accented characters you think you will come across - and you never know when someone is going to use an unexpected '�' or other such obscure character.

In the HTML Entities table the accented characters are described in such a way that the second character (ie the one after after the ampersand) is always the same as the unaccented form of the accented letter (and in the same case). '�', for example, is '&Eaccute;'. 

This function takes advantage of that fact and removes all accents.



<?php

function unaccent($text){

$trans = get_html_translation_table(HTML_ENTITIES); //Get the entities table into an array

foreach ($trans as $literal =>$entity){ //Create two arrays, for accented and unaccented forms

   if (ord($literal)>=192){ //Don't contemplate other characters such as fractions, quotes etc

      $replace[]=substr($entity,1,1); //Get 'E' from string '&Eaccute' etc.

      $search[]=$literal;}} //Get accented form of the letter

return str_replace($search, $replace, $text);}



echo unaccent("H�ll� �v�r����!");



?>

jschultz at youritdepot dot com
19-Aug-2004 04:40


Instead of using function str_replace_clean() posted by Jeroen use strtr().



Here is the problem str_replace_clean() fixes:

$search = array("one", "two", "three");

$replace = array("two", "three", "one");

$subject = "one two three";

str_replace($search, $replace, $subject); 

Output: "one one one".

str_replace_clean($search, $replace, $subject); 

Output: "three two one".



Instead use strtr() as so:

$trans = array(

"one" => "two",

"two" => "three",

"three" => "one",

);

strtr($subject, $trans);

Output: "three two one".



Hope this helps someone.

I used it to replace emoticon codes :) with image tags, and it works great

Jeroen - http://jeroen.all-stars.nl
28-Jun-2004 06:15


For a comparison of function str_replace_clean() with standard function str_replace(), I've put two testprograms at my website: see http://jeroen.all-stars.nl/php.php and click link 'Function str_replace_clean()'.

You can also download the code there.

aidan at php dot net
26-Jun-2004 12:53


Here is a simple function for highlighting a needle in text. It is careful to not replace text in HTML tags (unless specified).





http://aidan.dotgeek.org/lib/?file=function.str_highlight.php








Example: The google method of highlighting





<?php


$text = "Here is some text with a search term";


$needle = "search term";


echo str_highlight($text, $needle);


?>





Output:


Here is some text with a <strong>search term</strong>

aidan at php dot net
26-Jun-2004 12:07


If you would like to convert tabs to spaces, you could use the code:





<?php


str_replace("\t", "    ", $text);


?>





However, sometimes this is not good enough. To be technically correct, a tab is not 4 spaces, a tab shifts the text to the next predefined column. Usually these predefined columns occur every 4 spaces from the start of the line.





If you want to convert tabs to spaces while ensuring consistant formatting, try this function...





http://aidan.dotgeek.org/lib/?file=function.tab2space.php

rylas at mudmirror dot com
04-Jun-2004 05:48


An easy way to convert email addresses to the PHP.net comment-style email addresses:





<?


$email = "john@doe.org";


$search = array('@', '.');


$replace = array(" at ", " dot ");


$result = str_replace($search, $replace, $email);


?>





Outputs:


john at doe dot org

jr at adslate dot com
03-Jun-2004 07:52


When the first argument to str_replace() is an array, the elements are checked in increasing order of array index, as one would expect.





For example,





str_replace (array ('ABC', 'BC'), array ('E', 'F'), 'ABC')


returns 'E';





str_replace (array ('BC', 'ABC'), array ('E', 'F'), 'ABC')


returns 'AE'.

aeron at aeronius dot org
22-May-2004 05:05


Here's something I used to utilize str_replace in a script, by using it to replace text with graphic images.. say, if you had a counter or whatnot, and wanted a way to make the counter's results graphical:





<?


// For here, we're going to create a $ number ..


$num = 56;





// now, for the str_replace arrays.  We'll need these to make the replacements.


 


// digits to search for


$nums = array ( "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "0" );


 


// images array to replace them with.


$images = array ( "<img src=1.gif>", "<img src=2.gif>" , "<img src=3.gif>" );


// continue with the <img src>'s with the number pattern above.


 


// Now, for the function to do all the replacing.


$final = str_replace ($nums, $images, $num);


 


echo $final; 


?>





Quite simple, really.

bookvii at hotmail dot com
17-May-2004 01:07


this is a rather long and obvious solution to converting non-english chars where str_replace fails.





<?php


function euro_chars($str)


{


        $tmp = "";


        for($i = 0; $i < strlen($str); $i++) {


                switch(ord($str[$i])) {


                        case 192: case 193: //� �


                                $tmp .= "A";


                                break;


                        case 200: case 201: //� �


                                $tmp .= "E";


                                break;


                        case 204: case 205: //� �


                                $tmp .= "I";


                                break;


                        case 210: case 211: //� �


                                $tmp .= "O";


                                break;


                        case 217: case 218: //� �


                                $tmp .= "U";


                                break;


                        case 224: case 225: //� �


                                $tmp .= "a";


                                break;


                        case 232: case 233: //� �


                                $tmp .= "e";


                                break;


                        case 236: case 237: //� �


                                $tmp .= "i";


                                break;


                        case 242: case 243: //� �


                                $tmp .= "o";


                                break;


                        case 249: case 250: //� �


                                $tmp .= "u";


                                break;


                        case 241: //�


                                $tmp .= "n";


                                break;


                        case 209: //�


                                $tmp .= "N";


                                break;


                        case 231: //�


                                $tmp .= "c";


                break;


                        case 199: //�


                                $tmp .= "C";


                                break;


                        case 128: //�


                                $tmp .= "EU";


                                break;


                        default:


                                $tmp .= (string)$str[$i];


                                break;


                }


        }


        return($tmp);


}


?>

sonicavanger at copyleft dot com
02-Apr-2004 06:35


This function was originally written to produce UNIX and Windows conform Filenames from DB :: Firstname, Lastname.





<?php


// ---------------------------------------------------------


// function forceFilename($str, $spaceChar)


//


// convert $str to a UNIX/Windows-conform filename


// a char for $spaceChar will replace the default whitespace '_'


// note when using '.' internet exploer adds automatically "[1]" 


// for e.g. "This[1].is.a.filename.ext" in the save as dialog.


// ---------------------------------------------------------





function forceFilename($str, $spaceChar = '_')


{


  


  $str=trim($str);


  


  $_str = '';


  $i_max = strlen($str);


  for ($i=0; $i<strlen($str); $i++)


  { 


    $ch = $str[$i];


    switch ($ch)


    {


      case '�': case '�': 


      $_str .= 'AE'; break;     


      


      case '�': case '�': 


      $_str .= 'ae'; break;


      


      case '�': case '�':  case '�': case '�':  case '�': 


      $_str .= 'a'; break;     


      case '�': case '�':  case '�': case '�':  case '�': 


      $_str .= 'a'; break;     


      


      case '�': case '�':


      $_str .= 'c'; break;


  


      case '�': case '�':  case '�': case '�':


      $_str .= 'e'; break;     


      


      case '�': case '�':  case '�': case '�':


      $_str .= 'E'; break;     


      


      case '�': case '�':  case '�': case '�':


      $_str .= 'I'; break;     


      case '�': case '�':  case '�': case '�':


      $_str .= 'i'; break;     


      


      case '�': case '�':


      $_str .= 'n'; break;


      


      case '�':  


      $_str .= 'OE'; break;


      


      case '�':


      $_str .= 'oe'; break;


      


      case '�': case '�':  case '�': case '�':


      $_str .= 'O'; break;     


      case '�': case '�':  case '�': case '�':


      $_str .= 'i'; break;     


      


      case '�': 


      $_str .= 'ss'; break;


      


      case '�': case '�':  case '�':


      $_str .= 'U'; break;     


      case '�': case '�':  case '�': 


      $_str .= 'u'; break;     


      


      case '�': 


       $_str .= 'UE'; break;


       


      case '�':


      $_str .= 'ue'; break;


      


      case '�': 


       $_str .= 'Y'; break;


       


      case '�': case '�':


      $_str .= 'y'; break;


      


      case '�':


      $_str .= 'D'; break;


      


      case ' ': $_str .= $spaceChar; break;





      case '/': case '\'': case '-': case ':': 


      $_str .= '-'; break;


      


      default : if (ereg('[A-Za-z0-9\(\)]', $ch)) { $_str .= $ch;  } break;


    }


  }    


    


  $_str = str_replace("{$spaceChar}{$spaceChar}", "{$spaceChar}", $_str); 


  $_str = str_replace("{$spaceChar}-", '-', $_str); 


  $_str = str_replace("-{$spaceChar}", '-', $_str); 


  


  return $_str;


}


?>

calin at php9 dot com
18-Mar-2004 12:52


As the manual clearly states, it is only after PHP 4.0.5 that every parameter in str_replace() can be an array.





However you can use this function with arrays:





<?php


str_replace($array1,$array2,$dest)


?>





Before 4.0.5 and str_replace will silently do nothing.

Darren Gates - http://www.tufat.com
14-Mar-2004 03:22


Here's a version of str_replace which ignores differences in spacing (like tab, carriage return, line feed, etc.) in the two input strings.





Courtesy of http://www.tufat.com (Darren's Script Archive).





<?php


function str_rep($srcfor,$chwith,$mystr)


{


    if(strlen($mystr) == 0)


        return "";





    $tok  = strtok($srcfor," \n\t\r");


    $strsrc = array();


    $idxsrc = array();


    $i = 0;


    while($tok)


    {


        $strsrc[$i] = $tok;


        $pos = strpos($srcfor,$tok);


        $idxsrc[$i]=$pos;


        $tok = strtok(" \n\r\t");


        $i++;


    }





    $tok2  = strtok($mystr," \n\t\r");


    $str = array();


    $idx = array();


    $j = 0;





    while($tok2)


    {


        $str[$j] = $tok2;


        $pos = strpos($mystr,$tok2);


        $idx[$j]=$pos;


        $tok2 = strtok(" \n\r\t");


        $j++;


    }





    for($m=0;$m<$j;$m++)


    {


        if(strcasecmp($strsrc[0] , $str[$m]) == 0)


        {


            for($l=1;$l<$i;$l++)


            {


                if(strcasecmp($strsrc[$l],$str[$m+$l]) != 0)


                    break;


            }


            $l--;


            if(($l+1) == $i)


            {





                $new_str=substr($mystr,0,$idx[$m]);


                $new_str .= $chwith;





                $index = $idx[$m+$l]+strlen($str[$l+$m]);


                $len = strlen($mystr)-$index;





                if($len > 0)


                    $new_str .= str_rep($srcfor,$chwith,substr($mystr,$index,$len));





                return $new_str;


                break;


            }





        }


    }





    return $mystr;


}


?>

unusedacct at no$p at m dot comcast dot net
19-Feb-2004 11:45


For those who haven't yet updated to PHP 5 yet, here is a quick function to do regular str_replace on a string [not arrays] only a certain number of times:



<?php



function str_replace_count($find,$replace,$subject,$count)

{

   $subjectnew = $subject;

   $pos = strpos($subject,$find);

   if ($pos !== FALSE)

   {

      while ($pos !== FALSE)

      {

         $nC = $nC + 1;

         $temp = substr($subjectnew,$pos+strlen($find));

         $subjectnew = substr($subjectnew,0,$pos) . $replace . $temp;

         if ($nC >= $count)

         {

            break;

         }

         $pos = strpos($subjectnew,$find);

      } // closes the while loop

   } // closes the if

   return $subjectnew;

}



$stuff = "a b a b a b a b a";



print $stuff . " -- the old string<br>\n";



print str_replace_count("a ","c ",$stuff,4) . " -- the new string<br>\n";

// will output c b c b c b c b a -- the new string



?>



Hope this helps.

xavier paz (xpaz at matadracs dot com)
30-Dec-2003 12:39


If both the search and replace params are arrays, str_replace() will apply the substitutions incrementally, it is, it will try the first substitution, then the second using the result from the first one, and so on. It may be OK, or it may be a problem if you only want to change the original text.





For example, consider this code:


<?php


$search = array("one", "two", "three");


$replace = array("two", "three", "one");


$subject = "one two three";


echo str_replace($search, $replace, $subject). "<br>";


// echoes "one one one"


?>





This function makes the substitutions only to the original text.





<?php


/**


 * same as str_replace (array, array, string), but changing only the text in the


 * original string


 * $search and $replace are arrays of strings, $subject is a string


 */


function str_replace_clean($search, $replace, $subject) {


    if (!is_array($search) or !is_array($replace) or !is_string($subject)) return $subject;


    while (count($search)) {


        // get current terms, reduce the arrays for the next iteration


        $search_text = array_shift($search);


        $replace_text = array_shift($replace);


        // check if the substring is present


        $pos = strpos($subject, $search_text);


        if (is_int($pos)) {


            // match found - break in pieces


            $pieces = explode($search_text, $subject);


            if (count($search)) { // only if there are more substitutions to do


                // make next substitutions in every piece of text between matches


                foreach ($pieces as $k => $v) {


                    if (strlen($v)) $pieces[$k] = str_replace_clean($search, $replace, $v);


                }


            }


            $subject = join($replace_text, $pieces);


            break;


        }


    }


    return $subject;


}


?>





To test:


<?php


echo str_replace_clean($search, $replace, $subject);


// echoes "two three one"


?>





-- Xavier

thewolf at pixelcarnage dot com
23-Oct-2003 09:45


I also wanted to replace rude words in a pice of text, I had  str_replace replacing the word with *** but then I had a thought, what if I could replace these bad words and words also very similar? In the end I wrote this code, it uses two functions, one to check if the similarity between two words is high enough to qualify for filtering out and one to do the actual replacing (modified from my word_replace function):





<?php


$text = 'This is some text with a baword in it.';


echo similar_str_replace('badword', '*******', $text, 80);


    


function is_similar($one, $two, $similarity) {


    similar_text($one, $two, $percent);


    return $percent >= $similarity ? true : false;


}





/**


 * Written by Rowan Lewis of PixelCarnage.com


 * $search(string), the string to be searched for


 * $replace(string), the string to replace $search


 * $subject(string), the string to be searched in


 * $similarity(int), how similar the two words must be


 */


function similar_str_replace($search, $replace, $subject, $similarity = 85) {


    return preg_replace('/[a-zA-Z]+/e', 'is_similar(\'\0\', \'' . $search . '\', \'' . $similarity . '\') ? \'' . $replace . '\': \'\0\';', $subject);


}


?>





Just wack that into a php file, its ready for testing!





Hope someone uses it, and perhaps improves it somehow.

thewolf at pixelcarnage dot com
23-Oct-2003 09:38


I got sick of trying to replace just a word, so I decided I would write my own string replacement code. When that code because far to big and a little faulty I decided to use a simple preg_replace:





<?php


/**


 * Written by Rowan Lewis of PixelCarnage.com


 * $search(string), the string to be searched for


 * $replace(string), the string to replace $search


 * $subject(string), the string to be searched in


 */


function word_replace($search, $replace, $subject) {


    return preg_replace('/[a-zA-Z]+/e', '\'\0\' == \'' . $search . '\' ? \'' . $replace . '\': \'\0\';', $subject);


}


?>





I hope that this code helpes someone!

t at seebach dot dk
16-Oct-2003 07:58


A simple way of making a case insensitive, multiple words (array) highligt of a string:





<?php


$needle = array("foo","bar","boo");





// use the | to make preg_replace to use multiple values


$needle = join('|',$needle);





// use the /i to make case insensitive and \\0 not replace th word but simply to wrap the word.





$text = preg_replace("/($needle)/i","<b>\\0</b>",$haystack);


?>    





Hope you can use it, enjoy Torben

David Gimeno i Ayuso (info at sima-pc dot com)
25-Aug-2003 08:12


Take care with order when using arrays in replacement.





<?php


$match=array("ONE","TWO","THREE");


$replace=array("TWO WORDS","MANY LETTERS","OTHER IDEAS");


$sample="ONE SAMPLE";


echo str_replace($match,$replace,$sample);


?>





It will show: "MANY LETTERS WORDS SAMPLE"





That is, after replacing "ONE" with "TWO WORDS", process follows with next array item and it changes "TWO" with "MANY LETTERS".

imho at auspantheon dot com
27-Jun-2003 06:08


An excellent way of making sure your pages don't contain "invalid entities", IE. Valid HTML is using the following function.





Most forum packages / extensions provide output containing the symbol &, we don't want this!





<?php


function include_safe ($file)


{


    $array = file($file);





    foreach ($array as $line) {


    print str_replace('&', '&amp;', $line);


    }


}


?>





The same technique could also be used in conjuntion with htmlmspecialchars or htmlentities.

dbergeron [at] clincab [dot] com
25-Jun-2003 01:08


here is a function to highlight a part of a string. Unlike str_replace, it is both case insensitive, and maintains the case of the highlighted text.





<?php


function highlight($x,$var) {//$x is the string, $var is the text to be highlighted


    if ($var != "") {


        $xtemp = "";


        $i=0;


        while($i<strlen($x)){


            if((($i + strlen($var)) <= strlen($x)) && (strcasecmp($var, substr($x, $i, strlen($var))) == 0)) {


//this version bolds the text. you can replace the html tags with whatever you like.


                    $xtemp .= "<b>" . substr($x, $i , strlen($var)) . "</b>";


                    $i += strlen($var);


            }


            else {


                $xtemp .= $x{$i};


                $i++;


            }


        }


        $x = $xtemp;


    }


    return $x;


}


?>





Example: 


<?php


$string = "AaBbCcDd";


$string = highlight($string, "bc");


echo $string; //AaB<b>bC</b>cDd


?>

13-Jun-2003 05:59


Having a string for $search and an array for $replace won't work. This is mentioned on the preg_replace() page where it's described as not making sense, but not here.





But one could interpret such a situation and hence implement str_replace so that a signature of (string, array, string) or even (string, array, array) would "work". The result of





<?php


$search = '*';


$replace = range(1,20);


$subject = '{*}';


$result = str_replace($search, $replace, $subject);


?>





could be an array of elements "{1}", "{2}", "{3}" .... In other words it would have the same effect as





<?php


$search = '*';


$replace = range(1,20);


$subject = '{*}';


$result = array();


foreach($replace as $r) {


    $result[] = str_replace($search, $r, $subject);


}


?>





I leave more elaborate applications to your imagination :)





The result of a str_replace(string,array,array) would therefore presumably be an array of arrays, with its dimensions indexed by the two arrays passed in. But then there's the question of which is the first dimension and which is the second.

chirag at chime dot tv
23-Mar-2003 02:35


All the Google-like highlight functions above mess up when the needle is within the url too. getHTMLHighlight function below works fine: 





<?php


function getHTMLHighlight($needle, $haystack, $hlS, $hlE)


{


   $parts = explode(">", $haystack);


    foreach($parts as $key=>$part)


   {


     $pL = "";


       $pR = "";





     if(($pos = strpos($part, "<")) === false)


       $pL = $part;


     elseif($pos > 0)


     {


       $pL = substr($part, 0, $pos);


       $pR = substr($part, $pos, strlen($part));


     }


     if($pL != "")


       $parts[$key] = preg_replace('|\b('.quotemeta($needle).')\b|iU', $hlS.'\\1'.$hlE, $pL) . $pR;


   }


   return(implode(">", $parts));


}


?>





Usage:





getHTMLHighlight($needle, $haystack, "<b style=\"background-color:#FF3145\">", "</b>");

mv@anywhere dot br
13-Feb-2003 08:03


how to remove accents from text





<?php


function accents($text) {


    global $export;


    $search  = array ('�', '�', '�', '�', '�', '�', '�', '�', '�', '�', '�', '�', '�'); 


    $replace = array ('c', 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u', 'a', 'o', 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u');


    $export    = str_replace($search, $replace, $text);


    return $export;


}





accents("Carnaval � s� no Brasil");


?>

rit at NOSPAMchatol dot com
07-Jan-2003 06:32


I was trying to remove newlines from a textarea input (result of failed submission of parent form - JS verification not possible in this situation) to send back to the textarea via javascript (due to the fact that setting the value in the textarea tag does not work) and had a hard time figuring it out. 





If anyone cares, try replacing: "%0D%0A" which is how I found it(changed my POST method to GET) and tracked it down in the address bar of my browser. Hope this helps, I sure wish someone else had posted it earlier!

Shane43 at aol dot com
16-Oct-2002 09:12


Keep in mind that if you are trying to remove all the newlines (\n) from a fields that was submitted in a form, you may need look for \r\n instead:





If this doesn't work:


$text=str_replace ("\n", " ", $text);





then try this:


$text=str_replace ("\r\n", " ", $text);

art at zollerwagner dot com
09-Oct-2002 05:26


To use one or two arrays in str_replace, 





this appears to be the correct format:


<?php


str_replace(array('1st_current_needle_element', '2nd, '3rd'), array('1st_new_needle_element', '2nd', '3rd'), $haystack)


?>





Example of a single array, which simply removes the characters in the first array:


<?php


$text=str_replace(array('<', '>', '\\', '/', '='), "", $text);


?>





This will delete the chars: < > \ / =





It could also be done by first defining the array(s), like this:


<?php


$targetChars=array('<', '>', '\\', '/', '=');


$text=str_replace($targetChars, "", $text);


?>

gwkeeper at mmhk dot cz
30-Sep-2002 01:47


Hi, if You want to use case insensitive replacement with support eastern languages e.g. czech special chars try this:





<?php


$text = eregi_replace ( (sql_regcase($searched_text)), "<span class=\"Marked_1\" >\\0</span>", $text );


?>





without sql_regcase it did not found some special eastern chars

paul at atomicrevs dot net
28-Aug-2002 09:29


I made this to parse values returned in a form, but to preserve formatting so that it doesn't get removed in the "remove anything but alphanumeric" line...  Probably not elegant, but it works.





<?php


foreach ($_POST as $key => $val)


  {


    $val = preg_replace("(\r\n|\n|\r)", "#", $val); 


    $val = preg_replace("/[^0-9a-z -#]/i",'', $val); // strip anything we don't want


    $val = str_replace("#", "*", $val); // * Put a p or br here. 


    $_POST[$key] = $val;


  }


?>

unleadedis at optusnet dot com dot au dot nospam
12-Aug-2002 02:48


The problem is that str_replace seems to call the replace even though there may not be a replacement.





This is a problem in that in my parsing script when it finds a certain tag it calls a function, this function does a few SQL queries. It has been noticed that doing a str_replace on a page that contains no 'tag' that I am searching for, the function is called anyway!!!





To get around this I have to do a str_pos to see if it exists then call str_replace.





eg,


<?php


// Breadcrumb trail (same as per sitemap)


$bc_pos = strpos($string,"[[breadcrumbtrail]]");


if ($bc_pos || is_numeric($bc_pos)) { // true ? then exectue! 


    $string = str_replace ("[[breadcrumbtrail]]",


         generate_breadcrumb($nodedata_arr, $db), $string);


}


?>

tapken at engter dot de
24-May-2002 05:34


If you want to replace only the first occurence of a string you can use this function:





<?php


function str_replace_once($needle, $replace, $haystack) {


    // Looks for the first occurence of $needle in $haystack


    // and replaces it with $replace.


    $pos = strpos($haystack, $needle);


    if ($pos === false) {


        // Nothing found


        return $haystack;


    }


    return substr_replace($haystack, $replace, $pos, strlen($needle));


}


?>

dpardo at fia dot es
03-Apr-2002 02:03


If you are working with spanish characters and you are using accent (marks,quotes) you have to use something similar to this 



$q = str_replace("&aacute;", "a", $q);

str_replace

Description