Replace first instance of string in text only

Sayonara

Argh.

OK, picture the scene.

I have a large database full of records, and users can view records individually. What I would like is for the name of another record to be turned into a link when it first appears in another record's body text.

So if a user is reading the body for record 3, and the body keeps referring to record 6, only the first instance of record 6 is turned into a link.

I have used str_replace() but this replaces all instances, and strstr() doesn't seem to work - probably because I am using it incorrectly.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Geeky Example]

http://www.starfleetarchive.co.uk/episodes/?ID=670

[/Geeky Example]

dankstick

Had to use explode, hope this works out for you....

<?
$search_term = "RECORD 6";
$replace_with = "[RECORD SIX]";
$words = "I really like RECORD 6, it is so hot. RECORD 6 is the hottness, oh yeah, RECORD 6 has it, not RECORD 5";
$cracked_word = explode($search_term,$words);
foreach($cracked_word as $k => $v){
        $good_words .= $v;
        if($k == 0){
                $good_words .= $replace_with;
        }else if(sizeof($cracked_word) != $k+1){
                $good_words .= $search_term;
        }
}
echo "$good_words\n";
?>

Sxooter

Spiffy tricky way:

$break = "buckcake";
$replace = "corn flakes";
$str = "I love buckcake but not as much as buckcake pudding or buckcake pie.";
$tmp = split($break,$str);
$str = $tmp[0].$replace;
unset($tmp[0]);
$str.=implode($break,$tmp);
print $str;

dankstick

Even better...

<?php
$search_term = "RECORD 6";
$replace_with = "[RECORD SIX]";
$words = "I really like RECORD 6, it is so hot. RECORD 6 is the hottness, oh yeah, RECORD 6 has it, not RECORD 5";
$result = preg_replace("/$search_term/",$replace_with,$words,1);
print_r($result);
?>

Sayonara

lol, interesting terms 😃

Cheers for the input guys. I'll test it out now and let you know if it worked 👍