Search and Replace a complex string in MySQL

Question

I am working on a Client side where they have text like below saved into a MySQL Database, I need to delete it from all entries.

Using PHP or just SQL, can someone help me figure out how this can be done? I have hundreds of records so manually editing each record isn't a viable solution.

The String of text will be like this below, where the text is different for each post record.

Another issue is there could be more then 1 per post record, so I need to simply find the 1st occurance of it and delete it.

<p><strong style="color: rgb(255, 127, 0); font-size: 20px;">
    This is my tile text here, I need to delete these?</strong></p>

Where * could be anything...

<p><strong style="color: rgb(255, 127, 0); font-size: 20px;">*</strong></p>

So you want to delete what exactly? The part inside the tags or the whole field when this is found? — crackmigg
– crackmigg, Commented May 17, 2013 at 16:42
@migg I am hoping to remove this whole string when it's found in a larger content field...I'm doing this on a WordPress DB. 1 idea I have is using PHP, select the result and iterate each record running a REGEX on it, but I am not sure how the regex should be or if an easier way exists — JasonDavis
– JasonDavis, Commented May 17, 2013 at 16:44
@migg I am trying to delete this whole string * — JasonDavis
– JasonDavis, Commented May 17, 2013 at 16:49

crackmigg · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-17 16:58:07Z

1

$cleanstring = preg_replace(
    '#<p><strong style="color: rgb\(255, 127, 0\); font-size: 20px;">[^<]*</strong></p>#',
    '',
    $string,
    1
);

edited May 17, 2013 at 16:58

crackmigg

5,9412 gold badges35 silver badges41 bronze badges

answered May 17, 2013 at 16:44

tomsv

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6 Comments

JasonDavis Over a year ago

oh nice, I was thinking it would be some complex pattern, thanks

crackmigg Over a year ago

Problem with this pattern is its missing the delimiters and will if added replace anything between the open and the last closing tag

JasonDavis Over a year ago

@migg Are you saying if there is multiple  tags on the page it will capture everything in between the first open and the last closing one?

tomsv Over a year ago

Now it stops at the first "<" instead.

crackmigg Over a year ago

not anymore after edit, but still missing the delimiters like # or /

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