PHP removing a character in a string

Question

My php is weak and I'm trying to change this string:

http://www.example.com/backend.php?/c=crud&m=index&t=care
                                   ^

to be:

http://www.example.com/backend.php?c=crud&m=index&t=care
                                  ^

removing the / after the backend.php?. Any ideas on the best way to do this?

Thanks!

You should actually mark CMS' answer as the correct one.

eyelidlessness
– eyelidlessness

2008-11-05 06:50:00 +00:00
Commented Nov 5, 2008 at 6:50 — eyelidlessness
– eyelidlessness, Commented Nov 5, 2008 at 6:50

Christian C. Salvadó · Accepted Answer · 2008-11-05 06:49:01Z

141

I think that it's better to use simply str_replace, like the manual says:

If you don't need fancy replacing rules (like regular expressions), you should always use this function instead of ereg_replace() or preg_replace().

<?
$badUrl = "http://www.site.com/backend.php?/c=crud&m=index&t=care";
$goodUrl = str_replace('?/', '?', $badUrl);

answered Nov 5, 2008 at 6:49

Christian C. Salvadó

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Comments

eyelidlessness · Accepted Answer · 2008-11-05 07:05:34Z

8

$str = preg_replace('/\?\//', '?', $str);

Edit: See CMS' answer. It's late, I should know better.

edited Nov 5, 2008 at 7:05

answered Nov 5, 2008 at 6:37

eyelidlessness

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2 Comments

pestilence669 Over a year ago

str_replace is blindingly faster than a regex.

eyelidlessness Over a year ago

@Pestilence, that's why I recommended CMS' answer.

Henrik Paul · Accepted Answer · 2008-11-05 06:41:28Z

0

While a regexp would suit here just fine, I'll present you with an alternative method. It might be a tad faster than the equivalent regexp, but life's all about choices (...or something).

$length = strlen($urlString);
for ($i=0; $i<$length; i++) {
  if ($urlString[$i] === '?') {
    $urlString[$i+1] = '';
    break;
  }
}

Weird, I know.

answered Nov 5, 2008 at 6:41

Henrik Paul

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5 Comments

eyelidlessness Over a year ago

Er, what if $urlString[$i+1] isn't /?

Henrik Paul Over a year ago

eyelidlessness: the problem didn't present that case, so neither did my solution take it into account. MDCore: please elaborate, why so?

Bob Gettys Over a year ago

I've run into a problem where it's useful. If your string is on the order of megs in size (it can happen), running preg_replace or str_replace will risk hitting your php.ini's memory_limit. The pcre_replace code in php always mallocs 2x your string size before doing anything, so it can be an issue.

Bob Gettys Over a year ago

Going from my previous comment, if your string is really huge, you can do some strpos tricks to find the right pieces, preg_match them, and then use the above bracket notation to eliminate the characters you don't want. Use with care, since it's not fast, but it will save memory.

Volker Piasta Over a year ago

This solution looks smart, but if I try it, it gives me an error: "Cannot assign an empty string to a string offset". What could the reason?

nickf · Accepted Answer · 2008-11-05 06:49:41Z

0

$splitPos = strpos($url, "?/");
if ($splitPos !== false) {
    $url = substr($url, 0, $splitPos) . "?" . substr($url, $splitPos + 2);
}

answered Nov 5, 2008 at 6:49

nickf

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