PHP - match spaces not enclosed by HTML tags

Question

I have a text like:

Word word word <a href=google.com>word word word</a> word word word

I need the positions of spaces, which are not enclosed by any html tag - positions of spaces underlined below:

Word_word_word_<a href=google.com>word word word</a>_word_word_word

What regex should I use (in preg_match())?

Might be useful: stackoverflow.com/questions/9095447/… and the PHP doc will tell you to use option PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE to achieve what you want: php.net/preg_match — Maxime Pacary
– Maxime Pacary, Commented Sep 3, 2012 at 10:26

raina77ow · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-03 10:28:39Z

1

A rather straightforward approach:

$test = 'Word word word <a href=google.com>word word word</a> word word word';
$t = preg_replace('#\s+((?=.*<a)|(?!.*</a>))#', '_', $test);
var_dump($t); 
// string 'Word_word_word_<a href=google.com>word word word</a>_word_word_word'

Obviously, it won't work for the strings that may contain more than one embedded href; for these cases I would suggest another approach: 1) split the string by <a href...>...</a> parts, 2) replace all the whitespace in non-linked parts; 3) reconstruct the string.

answered Sep 3, 2012 at 10:28

raina77ow

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3 Comments

Juraj Kostolanský Over a year ago

Thank you, this is what I was looking for. There will not be embedded tags in my text.

Juraj Kostolanský Over a year ago

I have one more question: how to change it to not match spaces in IMG tags, too? EDIT: ok, i have it: #\s+((?=.*<a)|(?=.*<img)|(?!.*>))# :)

raina77ow Over a year ago

@Siorus If these tags are strictly exclusive in the processed strings, and your HTML is well-formed, replace <a and </a> with <img and /> correspondingly in the regex given. Otherwise, you'd better use an HTML parser.

h2ooooooo · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-03 10:26:27Z

0

Use the str_replace function:

$string = "Sample Sample Sample Sample Sample";
$name = str_replace(' ', '_', $string );
echo $name;

edited Sep 3, 2012 at 10:26

h2ooooooo

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answered Sep 3, 2012 at 10:22

Basith

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