Remove strings within a string

Question

The problem I'm encountering with this is if I have single characters in the array $wordstodelete it then deletes them from words in the $oneBigDescription.

$oneBigDescription = str_replace ( $wordstodelete, '', $oneBigDescription);

So it makes it look like this:

array (size=51)
  'blck' => int 5
  'centrl' => int 6
  'clssc' => int 6
  'club' => int 10
  'crs' => int 54
  'deler' => int 7
  'delers' => int 5
  'engl' => int 6
  'felne' => int 8
  'gude' => int 5
  'hot' => int 5
  'jgur' => int 172
  'jgurs' => int 5
  'lke' => int 6

Is there a way to only delete the single character from $oneBigDescription if it is on its own?

I'm having a hard time understanding your request. Can you show an example that describes what your problem is and what you need? — Michael Berkowski
– Michael Berkowski, Commented Jul 21, 2012 at 12:52

Rhys · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-21 13:24:25Z

$oneBigDescription = preg_replace("/\b$wordstodelete\b/", '', $oneBigDescription);

/b should look for word boundaries to ensure it's an isolated word when one character is used.

EDIT: Didn't quite read that right - this is more assuming you're looping over $wordstodelete as an array of words.

So, something like this:

$desc = "blah blah a b blah";
$wordstodelete = array("a", "b");
foreach($wordstodelete as $delete)
{
    $desc= preg_replace("/\b$delete\b/", "", $desc);
}

EDIT2: Wasn't quite happy with this, so refined slightly:

$arr = "a delete aaa a b me b";
$wordstodelete = array("a", "b");
$regex = array();
foreach($wordstodelete as $word)
{
    $regex[] = "/\b$word\b\s?/";
}
$arr = preg_replace($regex, '', $arr);

This account for taking out the following space, which in HTML isn't usually an issue when rendered (since consecutive spaces aren't generally rendered), but still a good idea to take it out. This also creates an array of regex expressions up front, which seems a bit nicer.

Aaron Dougherty · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-21 12:53:13Z

0

It sounds like you might need to use a little regex

$oneBigDescription = preg_replace('/\sa\s/', ' ', $oneBigDescription);

This will take "Black a central" and return "Black central"

answered Jul 21, 2012 at 12:53

Aaron Dougherty

7256 silver badges9 bronze badges

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Andreas Linden · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-21 12:56:00Z

0

you can use preg_replace to replace only "words on its own" like the following: (I'm generating the regular expressions so the list of words can stay the same)

$wordsToReplace = ("a", "foo", "bar", "baz");
$regexs = array();
foreach ($wordsToReplace as $word) {

    $regexs[] = "/(\s?)". $word . "\s?/";
}

$oneBigDescription = preg_replace($regexs, '\1', $oneBigDescription);

answered Jul 21, 2012 at 12:56

Andreas Linden

12.8k7 gold badges54 silver badges70 bronze badges

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