[Resolved] stristr()

OwenTheSamoan

I am using stristr() to search text for illegal words in messages on my website. I am NOT looking to switch or replace these words with anything. I am just trying to identify them on my site. This fuction works perfectly when I use it for one word or one group of words. How can I use it to search for multiple words or groups of words at the sametime.

Is it possible to use this function and search for more than one word or group of words at a time?

if ( stristr($message, "bad_word")) {

echo "You have violated a rule";

}

bpat1434

You could always run a quick str_replace() looking for all "spaces" and replace them with the standard %20. Then, when you search, search for "bad%20words".

<?php

$message = str_replace(' ', '%20', $message);

if(stristr($message, 'bad%20word'))
{
    echo 'You have violated a rule.';
}

~Brett

wilku

My idea is not straight but may be what you need:

$input_text = "This is the text to search through";
//a string which is improbable to be in an imput text
$delimiter="*#*#*#*";
//array of bad words and phrases
$bad_words = array("word1", "phrase with spaces 1");
//replace all occurences of bad words
$new_string = str_ireplace($bad_words,$delimiter,$input_text);
//split string by delimiter
$arr = explode($delimiter,$new_string);
$nr_occurences = count($arr) - 1;
if ($nr_occurences > 0) echo "You have used bad words $nr_occurences time(s).";

$delimiter can be either a string which won't occur in input string, or one of the bad words.
I haven't tried this for errors, but it should do the trick.

OwenTheSamoan

Thank you very much for the help!

OwenTheSamoan

Small problem with the last solution. I tired using str_ireplace() and I get Fatal error: Call to undefined function: str_ireplace()

When I use the str_replace() the case sensitive version it works perfectly. Any suggestions?

bpat1434

That is actually a PHP 5 function:
str_ireplace()
You are probably running PHP 4.x.x

One way to get around this problem is to make the strings all lowercase (strtolower()) and then run str_replace().

Only problem is if someone types:
I am the model of a Modern Major General

and you want to censor model, you would get this as the output:
i am the very ###*# of a modern major general

In which case, you could use ucfirst() to uppercase the first letter of each word:
I Am The Very ###*# Of A Modern Major General

Or, you could try using eregi_replace() and see if that works. Only problem there is eregi_replace doesn't use arrays to replace, so you'd have to loop through it:

$input_text = "This is the text to search through";
//a string which is improbable to be in an input text
$delimiter="*#*#*#*";
//array of bad words and phrases
$bad_words = array("word1", "phrase with spaces 1");
//replace all occurences of bad words
$new_string = ''; // Empty the string for future use
foreach($bad_words as $word)
{
    $new_string .= eregi_replace($word, $delimeter, $input_text);
}
//split string by delimiter
$arr = explode($delimiter, $new_string);
$nr_occurences = count($arr) - 1;
if ($nr_occurences > 0) echo "You have used bad words $nr_occurences time(s).";

~Brett

OwenTheSamoan

For some reason it didn't work. I got none of the bad words from my text picked up by the script. I am using an outside source to host my site and I am not using 5.0 version of php. If I ask them to upgrade me to the newer edition will this have any effect on any coding I have done already using an older edition pf php?

Thanks,
Owen The Samoan

bpat1434

It shouldn't. PHP 5.0 as far as I know is "backward compatible" and will parse 4.x.x PHP like normal. You may want to check your site, and if it throws errors, head over to php.net and see if the functions you use are PHP 5 compatible.

~Brett

wilku

If, as you said in your first post, you're trying to only identify, if bad words were used, and not replace them with anything then you can convert the text to lowercase and use str_replace:

$input_text = "This is the text to search through";
//a string which is improbable to be in an imput text
$delimiter="*#*#*#*";
//array of bad words and phrases
$bad_words = array("word1", "phrase with spaces 1");
//replace all occurences of bad words
$new_string = str_replace($bad_words,$delimiter,strtolower($input_text));
//split string by delimiter
$arr = explode($delimiter,$new_string);
$nr_occurences = count($arr) - 1;
if ($nr_occurences > 0) echo "You have used bad words $nr_occurences time(s).";

All the bad words need to be in lowercase then.

OwenTheSamoan

That worked perfectly! Thank you.