first instance...

[mhalloran]

I'm trying to write a code that only replaces the first instance of word.

for example:

change:
xxx xxx xxx

to:
yyy xxx xxx

if I were to do this:

$string="xxx xxx xxx";
$string=eregi_replace("xxx", "yyy", $string);

all of the xxx occurrences will be changed.

I already have it working the long way by putting it into an array but it's sloppy and I'm sure that there is an expression that will do this for me I just can't find it. Thanks for the help

[DigitalExpl0it]

dont know if this is what your looking for but...

<?
$var = "xxx xxx xxx";
$blowup = explode(" ", $var);
$string = eregi_replace("xxx", "yyy", $blowup[0]);
echo $string." ".$blowup[1]." ".$blowup[2];
?>

[feldon23]

$string="xxx xxx xxx";
$matchword="xxx";
$swapword = "yyy";
$firstmatch = strpos($string, $matchword);

if ($firstmatch > 1) {
$finalstring = substr($string,0,($firstmatch - 1)) . $swapword . substr($string,($firstmatch + strlen($matchword)));
} else {
$finalstring = $swapword . substr($string,strlen($matchword));
}

[diego25]

Or this:

$string="xxx xxx xxx";

$string=preg_replace('/xxx/', 'yyy', $string, 1);

Diego

[mhalloran]

And the award goes to diego25 !!!! 🆒

that's exactly what I was looking for. Here's how I was replacing the first instance of a colon before your post:

$string= preg_replace("/([^:]*):(.*)/", "\$1"." $replace"."\$2", $string);

It works but it butt ugly.:o

Thanks for the posts everyone.

EDIT: I can't believe they parse the PHP code segment for smiles. The smile is supposed to be colon open parenthesis