Regex help

darkblue

Could someone show me how to use preg_replace to change this:

test <OPTION VALUE="test">test</OPTION> test

into:

anotherword <OPTION VALUE=\"test\">test</OPTION> anotherword

basically, I want to change a value only if it is not in an option tag.....

Thanks!

planetsim

I would say use Vars(Variables) But i dont fully understand what you want to achieve

marcnyc

I'm new to RegExp myself so my solution probably sucks compared to a professional solution, but maybe for simple needs it could work:

$string = 'test <OPTION VALUE="test">test</OPTION> test';
$string = addslashes($string);
$string = preg_replace('/(\stest\s)/','anotherword',$string);

Basically I put your text in a variable, I add the slash to the double-quotes and then (since you seem to have "anotherword" and "test" one space away from the <option> tags) I look for the word test with either 0 or more spaces before or after it and replace it with "anotherword"...

I know this is a very preistorical solution and heavy-weight people around here can definitely suggest you better things but I think this should do what you need at this stage... Sorry I am still learning myself!

darkblue

Thanks for trying, but that gives me:

anotherword<option VALUE=\"anotherword\">anotherword</option>anotherword

marcnyc

sorry, my fault...
of course you are right!

It should be:

$string = 'test <OPTION VALUE="test">test</OPTION> test';
$string = addslashes($string);
$string = preg_replace('/(\s+test\s+)/','anotherword',$string);

Because * is 0 or more while + is 1 or more, so in your case you need to have 1 space to identify it as the actual pattern outside the option tags and NOT the two recurrances of it between "" and ><

darkblue

Unfortunately, this doesn't work either. I suspect it is because there is not a space before the first instance or one after the last instance.

Here is my feeble attempt. Maybe it will get you thinking in another direction and help you help me 🙂

My thought was to replace the word if it wasn't surrounded by quotes or brackets. Something like this (which doesn't work):

$string = 'test <OPTION VALUE="test">test</OPTION> test';

echo preg_replace('/[^{"|>]test[^"|<]/',} 'anotherword', $string);

marcnyc

Well, it definitely can't work like that because echo is wrong, but it would work (if your RegExp is correct) like this:

$string = 'test <OPTION VALUE="test">test</OPTION> test';
$string = preg_replace('/[^{"|>]test[^"|<]/',} 'anotherword', $string);

I know what you mean and I realize why my code doesn't work (the space is either before or after the word test but never at both ends in your example).

I am afraid I haven't quite learned negation (and RegExp for that matter) well enough but I suppose you'd have to negate the entire string of characters, not just the ", so it would be:

$string = 'test <OPTION VALUE="test">test</OPTION> test';
$string = preg_replace('/^{["|>]test^["|<]/',} 'anotherword', $string);

Try that, if it doesn't work make a search for posts started by me because I am discussing a similar issue right now and there is this heavy-weight guy called WeedPacket who left me some really good explanations about regexp and negation and all that stuff which would lead you in the right direction...

Also if you have to stick JUST to your example there is another solution which isn't as flexible but doesn't involve RegExp and would be the following:

$string = 'test <OPTION VALUE="test">test</OPTION> test';
$string = str_replace('test ','anotherword ',$string);
$string = str_replace(' test',' anotherword',$string);

Or even this:

$string = 'test <OPTION VALUE="test">test</OPTION> test';
$string = preg_replace('/(\stest\s)/','anotherword',$string);
$string = str_replace('"anotherword"','"test"',$string);
$string = str_replace('>anotherword<','>test<',$string);

Of course if you were to add addslashes() before the preg_replace you would then have to search for "anotherword\" in the last but one line, and if that doesn't work enter "anotherword\\". But you may as well add the addslashes() after everything else so that you don't have to take this extra step of changing the str_replace search string.