How to replace specific tag with regex in php?

Question

Suppose I have two links in my content. How can I find the specific links containing the $string and replace with words only.

$string = 'dog';
$content = 'a quick brown <a href="some-link"> fox</a> jumps over a lazy <a href="another-link"> dog</a>';
$new_content =  preg_replace('<a.+href="(.*)".*> '.$string.'</a>', $string, $content);

I have tried with '~<a.+href="(.*)".*> '.$string.'</a>~' but its removing all the content between those anchors too.

Whats wrong ?

update:

replace <a href="another-link"> dog</a> with dog only and leave <a href="some-link"> fox</a> as it is.

user3040610 · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-28 06:25:53Z

3

Try this to replace the anchor text to given string with preg_replace,

$string = 'dog';
$content = 'a quick brown <a href="some-link"> fox</a> jumps over a lazy <a href="another-link"> dog</a>';

echo preg_replace('/<a(.+?)>.+?<\/a>/i',"<a$1>".$string."</a>",$content);

answered Nov 28, 2016 at 6:25

user3040610

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2 Comments

user3040610 Over a year ago

@AnilChaudhari ,yes fox will be replaced with dog. a quick brown <a href="some-link"> dog</a> jumps over a lazy <a href="another-link"> dog</a>

Anil Chaudhari Over a year ago

Thanks for your great answer. But I just want to find anchor tag with selected string and replace the anchor tag element with given string.

Toto · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-28 08:40:34Z

1

Just use lazy quantifier, ie ?, and add delimiter to the regex:

$string = 'dog';
$content = 'a quick brown <a href="some-link"> fox</a> jumps over a lazy <a href="another-link"> dog</a>';
$new_content =  preg_replace('~<a.+?href="(.*?)".*> '.$string.'</a>~', $string, $content);
//                         here ___^  and  __^

You could also reduce to:

$new_content =  preg_replace("~<a[^>]+>\s*$string\s*</a>~", $string, $content);

edited Nov 28, 2016 at 8:40

answered Nov 28, 2016 at 8:20

Toto

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1 Comment

Toto Over a year ago

@AnilChaudhari: Sorry, you have to add optional spaces arround $string, see my edit.

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