How can I repeat a part of a string X times?

[MTS-Max]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a way to repeat part of a string X times. I will have markers to say which part of the string to repeat e.g. $str = "this is a string and I want to repeat repeat((this part)) and repeat((this part)) X number of times"; How could I do this?

TIA

[peytonrm]

You can do that with regexes. Take a look at preg_replace() in the php manual. Specifically what you will want to do is use a replacement with a reference to the matched pattern (e.g. $1 $1 $1 $1 to repeat 4 times).

[NogDog]

<?php
function repeat($text, $numRepeats)
{
   if(!function_exists('repeat_repeat'))
   {
      function repeat_repeat($txt, $rpt)
      {
         $out = "";
         for($i=0; $i<$rpt; $i++)
         {
            $out .= $txt . ' ';
         }
         return $out;
      }
   }
   $search = '/__repeat\(\((.+)\)\)/Use';
   $replace = "repeat_repeat('$1', $numRepeats)";
   return preg_replace($search, $replace, $text);
}
// TEST
$str = "this is a string and I want to repeat __repeat((this part)) and __repeat((this part)) X number of times";
echo repeat($str, 3);

[MTS-Max]

Hi, thank guys. I've worked out a solution using a loop and substr with strpos. THanks for the other suggestions anyway.