how to replace users input in php

Question

I pray that my question isn't confusing. I have made a search engine where people can search the city and state like so "Atlanta, GA" What I want is no matter how they type it whether it's like Atlanta,GA or Atlanta GA or Atlanta, GA it will still find the results. Now I tried doing this with PHP STR and I don't know if this is right. Here is my code. Thanks.

 $userinput=$request->input('cityandstate');

 $stq=str_replace(",",", ", $userinput);

Does your search engine require the city and state to be like <city> comma space <state>? — Nick
– Nick, Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 3:45
yes it does but sometimes you have people that don't that rule so I just want to be prepare for that — codingisfun22
– codingisfun22, Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 3:48

Nick · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-19 07:35:10Z

1

You can use preg_replace to get the user input into the exact form required by your search engine. preg_replace let's you allow for all sorts of inputs with multiple spaces and with or without commas:

$userinputs =array("Atlanta  GA", "Atlanta,GA", "Atlanta , GA", "Atlanta, GA ", " Atlanta   ,GA");
foreach ($userinputs as $userinput) {
   $stq = preg_replace('/^\s*(\w+)\s*,?\s*(\w+)\s*$/', '$1, $2', $userinput);
   echo "$stq\n";
}

Output:

Atlanta, GA
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta, GA

edited Sep 19, 2018 at 7:35

answered Sep 19, 2018 at 3:49

Nick

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Rod Staines · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-19 03:43:53Z

0

This will replace any comma in the string with nothing.

$stq = str_replace(",", "", $userinput);

See http://php.net/manual/en/function.str-replace.php

str_replace ( mixed $search , mixed $replace , mixed $subject [, int &$count ] )

This will not help you if a user inputs Atlanta - GA and you may be better served by using a preg_replace http://php.net/manual/en/function.preg-replace.php

answered Sep 19, 2018 at 3:43

Rod Staines

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6 Comments

codingisfun22 Over a year ago

Okay I will try that

codingisfun22 Over a year ago

I tried it and it worked, quick question can I also do something like this Miami, fl replaced with Miami,fl? I tried doing this $stq=str_replace(", ", ",",$userinputt);

codingisfun22 Over a year ago

its not working. I did $stq=str_replace(", ", ",", $userinputt); its not replacing Miami, fl with Miami,fl

Rod Staines Over a year ago

It appears you have a spelling mistake? $userinputt has an extra t? This worked for me. $userinput = "Atlanta, GA"; $newString = str_replace(", ", ",", $userinput); echo $newString;

codingisfun22 Over a year ago

but $userinputt is what I named the variable

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