simple preg_replace replacing anchor text

Question

Having issues wish a preg_replace function.

I am formatting a breadcrumb which the php is ioncubed so I am having to preg_replace to remove part of the breadcrumb.

I have a breadcrumb that looks like

<ul>
    <li><a href="mylink1.html">Link 1</a><i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></li>
    <li><a href="mylink2.html">Link 2</a><i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></li>
    <li><a href="mylink3.html">Link 3</a></li>
</ul>

What I want to do is completely remove

<li><a href="#">Link 2</a><i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></li>

My Original thoughts were to just str_replace

<li><a href="#">Link 2</a><i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i></li>

with nothing however the link can vary depending on the language file loaded.

I then thought about preg_replace the content of the url as the href is constant however I have absolutley no experiance with PHP and all attempts I have tried give random responses.

I'm hoping someone can help with the preg_replace or even if there is a better way to remove the line.

So far Ive tried

$str = '<li><a href="mylink.php">Link 2</a></li>';

$preg_replace = preg_replace('<li><a href="mylink.php">(.*)','placeholder',$str);

echo $preg_replace;

Thanks

[THE PONY HE COMES...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454) — Niet the Dark Absol, Nov 19 '13 at 23:29

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 20 '13 at 00:26

1

You have to bound your regex, typically with /. You also might want to include the closing tag or your regex will match more than you want

$preg_replace = preg_replace('/<li><a href="mylink\.php">(.*)<\/a>/','placeholder',$str);

I highly recommend http://regex101.com/ for learning more about regex and how to make them work.

edited Nov 20 '13 at 00:26

kero

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answered Nov 19 '13 at 23:23

Machavity

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regex101 says: `unescaped delimiter`: period and slashes – scrowler Nov 19 '13 at 23:29
Nice stuff. I thought he wanted something simpler – Machavity Nov 19 '13 at 23:40
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However, when you work with html, `/` is a bad choice as delimiter since you must escape all the slashes in the pattern. – Casimir et Hippolyte Nov 20 '13 at 00:23

simple preg_replace replacing anchor text

1 Answers1