[RESOLVED] Parsing and Replacing Parts of a String

[artnow]

Hi all -

I hope I have used the correct words in the title. I cannot figure out how to accomplish the following:

As I run through the results of my sql statement one result is a string called $restrictions. This string is somewhat different for each row of the results.

Example $restrictions string for 3 different rows:

Row 1
Canada only, except Quebec. 18+

Row 2
US(50+DC)/Canada, age of majority.

Row 3
Canada, except Quebec. Age of majority.

and so on.

What I want to achieve is the replacement of certain parts of the string with new wording.

Example (where 1st line is the current result for $restrictions and 2nd line is the required result)

Row 1
Canada only, except Quebec. 18+
Canada only, no QC, 18+

Row 2
US(50+DC)/Canada, age of majority.
US(50+DC)/Canada, AoM.

Row 3
Canada, except Quebec. Age of majority.
Canada, no QC. AoM

I've tried using explode(), str_replace() and both but I can't get the desired results. Since the $restrictions string varies quite a lot with varied upper case and lower case, punctuation, spacing and wording, I'm lost as how to parse it properly.

Any thoughts?

Kind regards

Bob

[artnow]

I've spent all afternoon on this and I've come up with something that looks like it works.

<?php

$clean = preg_replace('/[.]/', '',$restrictions); // remove the periods

$s = $clean;
$s = str_replace('except Quebec', 'no QC,', $s); // replace one element and add comma

$s1 = $s;
$s1 = str_replace('Age of majority', 'AoM', $s1); // replace second element and add comma

$s2 = $s1;
$s2 = str_replace('age of majority', 'AoM', $s2); // replace second element variation and add comma

echo $s2; // echo the new string

?>

As I find other things that need replacing I can just add another str_replace for it. Not sure it's pretty but as far as I can tell it works.

Any thoughts?

Bob

[Derokorian]

you can use preg_replace on the strings, and use the i flag to make it case-insensitive (that way you don't need a replace for every different capitalization possibility).