String search, remove and replace variables?

[Anon]

Hey.

I am trying to find a way (if it is even possible) to search a long string from a textarea box for certain words. Then I want to break them down and replace them. The problem is I don't know what the text will be ahead of time. I only know my identifiers of two number signs (#thetext#).

I tried to use ereg and str_replace combo to strip the text out from twixt the ##'s but I can't seem to get it to work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Example of code I mean :

$text is the textarea

ereg("#thisisthetextIamlookingfor#", "thisisthetextIamlookingfor", $text)
$foundtext = original text //"#thisisthetextIamlookingfor#"
$newtext = middlepartof original text //"thisisthetextIamlookingfor"
str_replace("$foundtext", "$newtext", $text)

//End of Example

Again, I know that is probably very very wrong code but I wanted to make it simple for you guys to see what I am trying.

Thanks in advance.

[Anon]

ereg_replace() will do the entire job in a single function call.

[Anon]

How do I use the ereg_replace if I don't know which text exactly I am looking for....?

Can I do an inline search for the two ## signs?

[Anon]

Sure:

  $string = ereg_replace('#[^#]+#', $replacement, $string);

This replaces any non-empty sequences of characters between #..#.
You can also include other chars in the brackets if there are other
restrictions (e.g. don't match across line breaks)

[Anon]

Thank you for your help. I believe I understand the wordage now.