Replace a string under condition (Regex?)

Question

I am looking for a solution for search and replace. I would need to add an empty space after specific string BUT only if there isn't one already. Regular expressions are to advanced for me. Anyone wants to help me out?

For example

Lorem ipsum[something]abcdefg[/something]dolor sit amet

Needs to be replace with

Lorem ipsum[something]abcdefg[/something] dolor sit amet

So, I need to search for [/something] and if it is not followed by space, then do the replace...

Sorry, I didn't know Regex is tied to language, it is PHP or executing mySql statement — Boris Kozarac
– Boris Kozarac, Commented Mar 9, 2016 at 16:21
Regex is not tied to language, but the way you replace all occurrences is. In Java, you'd write something like s.replaceAll("yourregex", "new value"). In javascript would be something like s.replace(/yourregex/g, RegExp.$1...) — Jodevan
– Jodevan, Commented Mar 9, 2016 at 16:24
@BorisKozarac my answer solves your problem, for sure. Try it and tell us :) — Marcos Pérez Gude
– Marcos Pérez Gude, Commented Mar 9, 2016 at 16:43

Marcos Pérez Gude · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-09 17:07:09Z

2

The regular expression can be this:

/(\[\/something\])(?!\s)/gmi

You can test it and know the whole explanation here:

https://regex101.com/r/pC4pQ3/1

If you see the first is targetted because is not an space, but the second is the opposite.

To apply this in PHP you must to use preg_replace(). Something like this:

$string = "Lorem ipsum[something]abcdefg[/something]dolor sit amet";
echo preg_replace("/(\[\/something\])(?!\s)/", "\1 ", $string);
// result: "Lorem ipsum[something]abcdefg[/something] dolor sit amet"

edited Mar 9, 2016 at 17:07

answered Mar 9, 2016 at 16:31

Marcos Pérez Gude

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