Using php preg_replace_callback - but replacing whole string not each sub string

Question

Hi I hope someone can help, as not too hot on regular expressions.

Got a script snippet as follows..

<?php

$news="test message {image=abc} more text text text {image=def}";

$news=preg_replace_callback("/\{image=.*\}/i",function ($matches) { $field=$matches[0];  return "*".$field."*"; }, $news);


echo $news;

?>

However when i run it, it returns

test message *{image=abc} more text text text {image=def}*

Instead I want it to return..

test message *{image=abc}* more text text text *{image=def}*

Thanks for any help.

Like anubhava's answer - many thanks for replying.. I was so close, yet so far :-) — dave baldwin, Oct 15 '13 at 17:54

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 15 '13 at 17:41

Make your regex non-greedy by using .*? instead of .*:

$news = "test message {image=abc} more text text text {image=def}";
$news = preg_replace_callback("/\{image=.*?\}/i",function ($matches) { 
                 return "*".$matches[0]."*"; }, $news);

echo $news;

OUTPUT

test message *{image=abc}* more text text text *{image=def}*

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 15 '13 at 17:46

1

Why callback?

$news = preg_replace("/(\{image=[^\}]+\})/i", "*$1*", $news);

answered Oct 15 '13 at 17:46

AbraCadaver

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Why do you use group 1 ? You could remove the parentheses and use `$0` in the replacement, anyways +1 :) – HamZa Oct 16 '13 at 07:21
Day late and $1 short. – AbraCadaver Oct 16 '13 at 12:51

Using php preg_replace_callback - but replacing whole string not each sub string

2 Answers2