string manipulation problems in function.

[sijis]

Hello everyone.

I began working with ASP and now I want to learn PHP.

So I've been trying to convert an ASP function to a PHP function.
I haven't been successful as of yet.

I think my problem is somewhere within the lines of using str_replace() and substr().

I think I'm not getting the right value and or using the functions for the wrong purpose.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

sijis

hopefully when/if completed I'll add it to the Snippet Library.

ps. I'm not getting any errors, so my syntax is correct, I'm sure its the logic behind it.

[Weedpacket]

What's happening instead?

One thing I can see is that

$hole = strlen((strpos($temp_text,"}") - $start)); //get length between {}

Has a ) in the wrong place.

Also, remember that string character positions start from 0 in PHP, not 1 as they do in VBScript. So

while(!strpos($temp_text,"{",$e) == 0){
//and
$start = int(strpos($temp_text,"{",1));

Won't work if { is the first character in the string. You'll be wanting

while(strpos($temp_text,"{",$e)!==$false){
//and
$start = strpos($temp_text,"{"); // Why cast an int to an int?

Of course, if I was going to write a function that

Makes email and http links based on brackets.
ex:{www.link.com} returns <a href="http://www.link.com">www.link.com</a>
ex:{[e-mail]} returns <a href="mailto:[e-mail]">[e-mail]</a>

I'd be more likely to do it in two lines:

$text = preg_replace("/{([^}]+@[^}]+)}/", "<a href=\"mailto:\\1\">\\1</a>", $text);
$text = preg_replace("/{([^}]+)}/", "<a href=\"http://\\1\">\\1</a>", $text);

(Not that I've tested them or anything.)

[bernouli]

you can spend these lines

for($i=0; $i<=count($arrBannedWords); $i++){
                $temp_text = str_replace($arrBannedWords[$i],"*****",$text);
        }

with

$temp_text = preg_replace($arrBannedWords,"*****",$text);

since preg_replace works best with array

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by bernouli
you can spend these lines
...
since preg_replace works best with array

Actually,

$temp_text = str_replace($arrBannedWords,"*****",$text);

would also work, and almost certainly be faster.

[sijis]

I tried the code:

$text = preg_replace("/{([^}]+@[^}]+)}/", "<a href=\"mailto:\\1\">\\1</a>", $text);

but the mailto part never shows. I'm so clueless using reg exp, I wouldn't know where to begin.

i also tried that preg_replace, instead of the for loop i have, but i got this error:
Warning: Delimiter must not be alphanumeric or backslash in /var/www/includes/global_php.php on line 57

so i went back to my original loop, but it's still not working.
what could be wrong wit this?

	for($i=0; $i<=count($arrBannedWords); $i++){
		$temp_text = str_replace($arrBannedWords[$i],"*****",$text);
	}

I have learned this. I should learn regular expressions. It seems that I could have saved myself hours of work if I'd learn reg exps.

I thanks Weedpacket for showing me the power of a reg exp. I did everything i wanted to do in 2 lines. That's soo cool.

thanks again.

[sijis]

actually, I just found out that individually each preg_replace statement works fine, when the other isn't present.

is there a way to include both of there statements, without having one override the other?

$text = preg_replace("/{([^}]+@[^}]+)}/", "<a href=\"mailto:\\1\">\\1</a>", $text);
$text = preg_replace("/{([^}]+)}/", "<a href=\"http://\\1\">\\1</a>", $text);

thanks.

[Weedpacket]

Doing them in that order should work, but doing them the other way around won't.

The reason of course is that every string that matches the mailto: pattern also matches the http: pattern (the only difference is that the mailto: pattern looks for an @ as well). So matching and converting http: first will leave nothing left to mailto: to work on. So mailto: has to be done first.

One serious problem, of course, is that absolutely no validation is being done. {I just happened to use braces here}, and it would get matched and produce <a href="http://I just happened to use braces here">I just happened to use braces here</a>.