Regex to find and replace string with starting and ending text in PHP

Question

i want a php function probably regular expression to find and replace a string that starts with a constant string and ends up with a specific string and the text mentioned within those strings.. e.g.,

[Starting String]..anything.. [Ending String]

and i want to remove above pattern of string with empty space.. Kindly advise!!

Give an example, please.

Andrew Rasmussen
– Andrew Rasmussen

2012-02-22 05:40:51 +00:00
Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 5:40 — Andrew Rasmussen
– Andrew Rasmussen, Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 5:40
Please, explain better what do you want.

J. Bruni
– J. Bruni

2012-02-22 05:45:27 +00:00
Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 5:45 — J. Bruni
– J. Bruni, Commented Feb 22, 2012 at 5:45

Cheery · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-22 05:53:42Z

15

$str = preg_replace('/' . preg_quote('[Starting String]') . 
                          '.*?' .
                          preg_quote('[Ending String]') . '/', '', $str);

preg_quote is used to be sure that you will not break the regexp with some specific for regexp characters in your 'Starting' and 'Ending' strings, like []

For $str = ' blah blah [Starting String] something [Ending String] blah blah'; the result would be blah blah blah blah

edited Feb 22, 2012 at 5:53

answered Feb 22, 2012 at 5:47

Cheery

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2 Comments

dungphanxuan Over a year ago

How can i replace by condition. Ex. if text is a then replace by b, if text is c then replace by d.

Cheery Over a year ago

@dungphanxuan use preg_replace_callback

jmkelm08 · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-22 05:52:10Z

1

I believe you want to use preg_replace. I haven't tested it, but something along the lines of:

$str = "Starting String foo bar Ending String"
$pattern = '/^Starting String(.+)Ending String$/'
$replacement = ''
$result = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $str);

You will have to make sure that Starting String and Ending String do not contain any special regex characters or that they are properly escaped.

edited Feb 22, 2012 at 5:52

answered Feb 22, 2012 at 5:46

jmkelm08

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1 Comment

jmkelm08 Over a year ago

I think Cheery's answer is probably a little more correct than mine

J. Bruni · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-22 06:02:49Z

define('STARTING', 'starting string');

$ending = 'ending string';
$string = 'starting stringSomething Hereending string';

function get_anything($string, $ending, &$anything)
{
    if (strpos($string, STARTING) !== 0)
    {
        return false;
    }
    if (substr($string, strlen($ending) * -1) != $ending)
    {
        return false;
    }
    $anything = substr($string, strlen(STARTING));
    $anything = substr_replace($anything, '', strlen($ending) * -1, -1);
    return true;
}

if (get_anything($string, $ending, $anything))
{
    echo $anything;
}

The function get_anything will return false if the pattern is not found, and true if it is found. The "anything" in the middle will be returned in the third parameter.

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