Simple preg_replace Question

[joe_44850]

I am trying to replace whitespace between two apostrophes in a string. So, if I have "the quick 'brown fox jumped' over the fencec", I'd like to see "the quick brown@fox@jumped over the fence".

The code would something like:
$statement = preg_replace("/'(.*?)'/", "@", $statement);

Of course, the problem with the above statement is it replaces everything between the apostrophes, I only want to replace whitespace. Any ideas (yes, I've googled, read the manual, I just can't figure this one out, thanks!).

Joe

[wilku]

I don't know how to do it with preg_replace, but here's some workaround:

<?php
$statement = "the quick 'brown fox jumped' over the fence";
preg_match("/'(.*?)'/", $statement,&$matches);
$new = str_replace(" ","@",$matches[0]);
$statement_new = str_replace($matches[0],$new,$statement);
echo "Old: $statement<br>";
echo "New: $statement_new";
?>

[joe_44850]

Well,
not exactly what I was looking for, but it does the job.
Thanks!