[Resolved] Sub String Manipulating

[Sauro]

Hi,

Does anyone have any ideas on how to go about doing this.

$s = 'This is a \n long string :markstart: This is the \ndata I \nwant to edit:markend: and the rest \nof the string';

I want to strip out the \n characters from only inside the markers :markstart: :markend: but not from anywhere else in the string. The string may also have many :markstarts: and ends in it, so am trying to do all in 1 pass if possible.

So far, I can get all the substrings using eregi() and can strip out the \n's but cant think of a way to place back into the string at the correct place.

Using eregi_replace, I can get the contents inside the markers, but cant manipulate the parameter \1 to strip out the \n's as the paramater does not seem reference the data until eregi_replace has entered the data back into the string...if that makes sense.

Any ideas would be great.
Thanks in advance.

[planetsim]

You can use preg_match_all however that will get only the data between the markings which you require you will then need to loop each find and strip out the \n

if (preg_match_all("/:markstart:(.+?):markend:/is",$contents)) {
  //get your results then loop
}

I havent tested the code so it may not work however I hope ive given you an idea on how to go about it.

[johnnyv]

something like

$first = explode(":markstart:",$string);
foreach($first as $value)
{
   if(stristr($value,":markend:" ))
   {
   $second = explode(":markend:",$value);
   $temp = str_replace("\n","",$second[0]);
   $final_string = $final_string.":markstart:".$temp.":markend:".$second[1];
   }
   else
   {
   $final_string = $final_string.$value;
   }
}

[Sauro]

Thank you planetsim and johnnyv. Have been 2 days trying to figure this one out. Your code works perfect 🙂