[RESOLVED] Code within text

NZ_Kiwis

I've got a string of text and will contain a string such as {NewID:75393} the number will vary.

I want to replace this with a URL string. I know str_replace and preg_match but how can I do this and get the unique number in it so I can do a SQL search on it.

NogDog

If I'm understanding the question, something like:

$text = preg_replace('/\{NewID:(\d+)\}/', "link markup using $1 for id", $text);

NZ_Kiwis

Yeah that's similar to what I had. The difference is I need the number in a variable such as $ID so I can do a SQL search and get data and also validate that ID is valid.

Weedpacket

So you want to use [man]preg_match[/man] as well.

NZ_Kiwis

Sorry I'm still not getting the ID out of that string, can you show me some code that will do it?

Weedpacket

You say you know preg_match()? How are you trying to use it? Because the regexp NogDog used would match your sample.

NZ_Kiwis

preg_match('/[^0-9]/', "{NewsID: 2323}", $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE);

print_r($matches);

Weedpacket

/[^0-9]/

Meaning, "the first character you find that is not a digit". In this case that would be [font=monospace]'{'[/font].

NZ_Kiwis

I'm getting more and more confused now.

Let me explain this is detail. I have a string of text. In that may be a string {NewsID:1367} that will be the syntax at least, the number will vary. There may also be multiple occurrences of this.

What I'm needing to do is replace this syntax with a URL. I also want to do a SQL query on the ID and return a couple of rows. Again the query is simple once I have the ID.

Essentially what I believe I need to do it loop through the original string of text. Find an occurrence of my syntax and replace it.

$str =  "This is my original string of text, please refer to this news article {NewsID:343} or for more information read this article {NewsID:66447}.";    

$ary = explode(' ', $str);
foreach($ary as $str){

/* check if my word is equal to the format i'm looking for. Extract the ID, do a query, get my rows. Replace the $str with formatted URL.*/

}

I guess I have no idea how to do the commented out stuff.

laserlight

It sounds like a job for preg_match_all, e.g.,

<?php
$str =  "This is my original string of text, please refer to this news article {NewsID:343} or for more information read this article {NewsID:66447}.";

$mock_database = ['343' => 'http://example.com/one',
                  '66447' => 'http://example.com/two'];

if (preg_match_all('/{NewsID:(\d+)}/', $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER)) {
    foreach ($matches as $match) {
        $placeholder = $match[0];
        $id = $match[1];
        if (array_key_exists($id, $mock_database)) {
            $str = str_replace($placeholder, $mock_database[$id], $str);
        }
    }
}
echo $str;