PHP regex replace between wordpress shortcode tag

Question

I have a shortcode which I want to be able to strip away depending on the context of the post. Eg.

[tooltip slug="test"]Test Text[/tooltip]

I would like the output to be:

<span class="dummy">Test Text</span>

I have experimented (a lot!) with preg_replace and I can't seem to get it to recognize that the replacement string is between the ']' and then delimited by '[/tooltip]' without doing multiple passes.

Ideas?

Update: As so often happens, about 10 seconds after I wrote this one of my attempts seemed to work. I don't think it's as good as the solution below but FWIW...

$my_var .= preg_replace('/(?:\[tooltip slug=\"([^\"]*)"[^\>]*\]([^\<]*)\[\/tooltip\])/', '<span class="dummy">\\2</span>', $my_post->post_content);

Please show your attempt(s), that way we could improve your mistakes. Btw, I'm pretty sure this has been asked before — HamZa
– HamZa, Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 22:09
possible duplicate of How to create a Wordpress shortcode-style function in PHP — Tomasz Kowalczyk
– Tomasz Kowalczyk, Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 22:11

zx81 · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-16 22:58:51Z

4

Here is the simple regex you are looking for.

$result = preg_replace('%\[tooltip slug="[^"]*"]([^[]*)\[/tooltip]%',
          '<span class="dummy">\1</span>', $subject);

What we do here is capture the text between the tooltip tags, and insert it in the replacement. Let me know if you need any details.

answered Apr 16, 2014 at 22:58

zx81

42k10 gold badges92 silver badges106 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

jchwebdev Over a year ago

Thanks. I struggled with the bracket after 'slug='['. I could only seem to get it to work as -two- expressions. Obviously I wasn't patient enough in walking it through.

zx81 Over a year ago

@jchwebdev As you can see there's not a lot of escaping that needs to be done. Once you're comfortable with what needs and doesn't need escaping, your expressions are a lot cleaner. I recommend not using slash (/) as a delimiter, use % or ~ or # depending on the situation. Too many slashes in html: it ends up looking like soup. It's great that you're using NOT (^) in your character classes. You're on your way with regex. :) At this stage you may benefit from "The Elements of Regex Style" article. rexegg.com/regex-style.html

jchwebdev Over a year ago

Wow. That is a -great- tutorial. I've looked at many and for some reason this thing just clicked. Many thanks.

ôkio · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-16 22:11:59Z

0

$test = preg_match('/\[([^\]]+)\]([^\[]+)\[/', '[tooltip slug="test"]Test Text[/tooltip]', $matches);

echo $matches[2];

answered Apr 16, 2014 at 22:11

ôkio

1,7901 gold badge17 silver badges17 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP regex replace between wordpress shortcode tag

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related