Words in a sentence replaced from a list of other words

curb

How am I able to randomly replace words with one of the list of words coming from a text file? Each line serves one possible random word to replace?

Example:

inside the synonym.txt has word options per line to replace

help,assist,serve,aid
happy,felicitous,glad

NY Times Rss Feed - Before

<title>West Village Help: A Plea Rarely Heard: Fewer Spots for Cars</title>
<title>Good Eating | East Village: When Roaming for Ramen assist workers</title>
<title>College Point: A Taste of History, When are students glad?</title>

NY Times Rss Feed - After

<title>West Village aid: A Plea Rarely Heard: Fewer Spots for Cars</title>
<title>Good Eating | East Village: When Roaming for Ramen help workers</title>
<title>College Point: A Taste of History, When are students happy?</title>

bradgrafelman

I'm confused... how are the lines in the text file related? How do you know what word to replace with what?

curb

The feed titles are checked if it contains any words in the text file, if a word is found, a random word from that line will be replaced.

Example:

txt file

helpful,assisted,served (line 1)
happy,felicitous,glad (line 2)
Luke Skywalker,Han Solo,Tarfang(line 3)

Let's say the first <title> from the feed input is:
"<title>The most helpful character in Star Wars is Han Solo.</title>"

It reads the title and checks that "Han Solo" is listed on the txt file (Line 3). It then randomly selects either "Luke Skywalker,Han Solo or Tarfang" from line 3 as the output for "Han Solo". The word "helpful" is found on the txt file (Line 1) so it randomly replaces that word with either "helpful,assisted, or served" from line 1 as the output".

Output:
"<title>The most served character in Star Wars is Luke Skywalker.</title>"

reddrum

I have written two functions that will accomplish what you are attempting, if modified. The first is to check for and replace special characters and the 2nd is to select a random password.

function chk_reg_exp($string){
       $patterns[0] = '/&/';
       $patterns[1] = '/"/';
       $patterns[2] = '/</';
       $patterns[3] = '/>/';
       $patterns[4] = "/'/";
       $replacements[0] = '#38';
       $replacements[1] = '#34';
       $replacements[2] = '#60';
       $replacements[3] = '#62';
       $replacements[4] = '#39';
       preg_replace($patterns, $replacements, $string);
       preg_replace('/;/', '#59', $string);

   return $string;
   }
   function get_pass(){
       $letters = array("a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h", "i", "j", "k", "l", "m", "n", "o", "p", "q", "r", "s", "t", "u", "v", "w", "x", "y", "z");
       $first = $letters[rand(0,count($letters)-1)] . $letters[rand(0,count($letters)-1)] . $letters[rand(0,count($letters)-1)];
       $second = $letters[rand(0,count($letters)-1)] . $letters[rand(0,count($letters)-1)] . $letters[rand(0,count($letters)-1)];
       $num =  rand(10,99);
       $pass = $first . $num . $second;
       return $pass;
    }

NogDog

Besides the fact that I can't quickly think of a clean and simple way of doing this, I also cannot think of a reason why you would want to alter someone else's text that way; particularly since you seem to be indicating that you want to modify the content of a NY Times RSS feed, part of whose RSS usage agreement stipulates:

Unless otherwise permitted by NYT, you will: (i) display all Content on your Site in the exact form received by you, and not modify or edit any of the foregoing without NYT's prior written consent;

curb

NYT was just an example of an RSS header I could use as a heading.