PHP replace sub string with the value from an array

Question

I have a text say:

$text = "An Elephant is an Elephant but an Elephant is not an Elephant"

And I have an array say:

$array = array("First", "Second", "Third", "Fourth", "Fifth", "Sixth", "Seventh", "Eight", "Ninth");

In the text you can see there are many occurrences of "Elephant". What I want to do is I want to replace the occurrences of Elephant with unique values from the array and the result should be something like this:

$result = "An Fifth is an Seventh but an First is not an Fourth"

I have tried this so far :

$arr = array("First", "Second", "Third", "Fourth", "Fifth", "Sixth", "Seventh", "Eight", "Ninth");
$text = "an elephant is an elephant but an elephant is not an elephant";
$array = explode(" ", $text);
$new_arr = array_diff($array, array("elephant"));
$text = implode(" ".$arr[array_rand($arr)]." ", $new_arr);
echo $text;

It outputs something like this:

an First is First an First but First an First is First not First an

How can I get like this?

An Fifth is an Seventh but an First is not an Fourth

jimmypage · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-04 10:11:58Z

5

Here, why don't you try this?

$arr = array("First", "Second", "Third", "Fourth", "Fifth", "Sixth", "Seventh", "Eight", "Ninth");
$arrlength = count($arr);
$text = "an elephant is an elephant but an elephant is not an elephant";
$array = explode(" ", $text);
for ($i=0; $i < count($array); $i++) { 
    if ($array[$i]=="elephant")
    {
        $random_key = array_rand($arr, $arrlength);
        $array[$i] = $arr[$random_key[rand(0, $arrlength-1)]];
    }
}
$text = implode(" ", $array);
echo $text;

answered Aug 4, 2015 at 10:11

jimmypage

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Comments

Rizier123 · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-04 09:16:46Z

3

This should work for you:

With preg_replace_callback() you can then simply use array_rand() to always replace it with a random value out of your array.

<?php

    $arr = array("First", "Second", "Third", "Fourth", "Fifth", "Sixth", "Seventh", "Eight", "Ninth");
    $text = "an elephant is an elephant but an elephant is not an elephant";

    echo $newText = preg_replace_callback("/\belephant\b/", function($m)use($arr){
        return $arr[array_rand($arr)];
    }, $text);

?>

possible output:

an Seventh is an Third but an First is not an Ninth

edited Aug 4, 2015 at 9:16

answered Aug 4, 2015 at 9:15

Rizier123

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3 Comments

Yunus Aslam Over a year ago

You Sir. Saved my day. That is what I exactly wanted. Thank You So much.

Yunus Aslam Over a year ago

one last thing. Can you please tell me if the text contains "~hic~" instead of "elephant". Then how could I replace "~hic~" ?

Rizier123 Over a year ago

@Illusion Just replace the regex: /\belephant\b/ with /~hic~/

TeeDeJee · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-04 09:22:22Z

0

An adaptation to the answer of Rizier123, so you never have the same replacement. (Watch out you don't need to replace more items than the number of items you have in your array)

$arr = array("First", "Second", "Third", "Fourth", "Fifth", "Sixth", "Seventh", "Eight", "Ninth");
$text = "an elephant is an elephant but an elephant is not an elephant";

echo $newText = preg_replace_callback("/\belephant\b/", function($m)use(&$arr){
  $item = array_rand($arr);  
  $return = $arr[$item];
  unset($arr[$item]);
  return $return;
}, $text);

answered Aug 4, 2015 at 9:22

TeeDeJee

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1 Comment

Yunus Aslam Over a year ago

Cool.. But one last thing. Can you please tell me if the text contains "~hic~" instead of "elephant". Then how could I replace "~hic~" ?

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