str_replace ()

[Anon]

is there any way to do wildcard changes using str_replace() ?
consider this:
$DataPrint[1] = str_replace(\"ref=pd_bsb_1\", \"hello\", $DataPrint[1]);

the value of ref variable will change all the time, therefore i need to replace everthing following starting from \"ref=some other stuff\" to \"hello\".

Thank you very much!

[tomhath]

"preg_replace" does what you want.

[Anon]

i am not familiar with preg_replace can you please tell me how can i use it so it changes everything starting from "ref="

thank you very much!

[tomhath]

This should get you started. Regular expressions are way, way more powerful than wildcards:

<?php
$DataPrint = "aaaaa \"ref=pd_bsb_1\" bbbbbb <BR>";
echo $DataPrint;
$DataPrint = preg_replace( "/\"ref=.*\"/", "\"hello\"", $DataPrint);
echo $DataPrint;
?>

[Anon]

I guess i am too dum newbie! sorry
let me give you my real example

the original html would be something like <a href="http://mysite.com/qid=some_changing_variables/">books</a>

now everything starting from qid= to "> should become hello.

how i do this? if i use wildcard all the html after qid will be gone, i can't specify number of characters too since the variable qid changes all the time. thank you in advance