how to make php regex preg_replace working

Question

I have to convert a string using preg_replace. Below is the string I need to convert

@[ Test Career 12](career:235)@[ Testing11](business:2)@[ Username](user:1)some text

I have created code to repalce the content, but it is not working. Please check the below code,

$Rtm = '@[ Test Career 12](career:235)@[ Testing11](business:2)@[ Username](user:1)some text';

if (preg_match("/@\[(.*?)\]\(user:(.*?)\)/", $Rtm, $match)) {
    $Rtm0 = preg_replace("/@\[(.*?)\]\(user:(.*?)\)/", '<a href="/en/main/profile_page_link/$2">$1</a>, ', $Rtm);

    $Rtm = rtrim($Rtm0, ', ');
}

if (preg_match("/@\[(.*?)\]\(business:(.*?)\)/", $Rtm, $match)) {
    $slug = "1";

    $Rtm01 = preg_replace("/@\[(.*?)\]\(business:(.*?)\)/", '<a href="/en/business/' . $slug . '/about">$1</a>, ', $Rtm);

    $Rtm = rtrim($Rtm01, ', ');
}

if (preg_match("/@\[(.*?)\]\(career:(.*?)\)/", $Rtm, $match)) {
    $slug = "2";

    $Rtm02 = preg_replace("/@\[(.*?)\]\(career:(.*?)\)/", '<a href="/en/main/' . $slug . '/about">$1</a>, ', $Rtm);

    $Rtm = rtrim($Rtm02, ', ');
}

echo $Rtm;

Output for the above code is,

<a href="/en/main/profile_page_link/1"> Test Career 12](career:235)</a><a href="/en/business/1/about"> Testing11</a>, @[ Username, some text

But my required output is,

<a href="/en/main/2/about"> Test Career 12</a>, <a href="/en/business/1/about"> Testing11</a>, <a href="/en/main/profile_page_link/1"> Username</a> some text

The given string is just a demo, the order may change as it is dynamic. But the structure is same.

How to get the required output. Is there any problem with my coding.

My suggestion is to test your regex here: regexr.com it shows all the steps, the groups and matchings — DDS
– DDS, Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 9:05
Why do you have , at the end of the replacement and then you remove it with rtrim? — Toto
– Toto, Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 9:13

Nick · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-22 09:53:09Z

I would use preg_replace_callback for this, capturing the text in [], slug type (user, career or business) and value (for slug user) in groups and passing them through to the callback to form the URLs:

$Rtm = '@[ Test Career 12](career:235)@[ Testing11](business:2)@[ Username](user:1)some text';

$Rtm = preg_replace_callback('/@\[([^]]*)\]\(([a-z]+):([^)]*)\)/', function ($match) {
    switch($match[2]) {
        case 'user':
            return "<a href=\"/en/main/profile_page_link/$match[3]\">$match[1]</a>";
            break;
        case 'business':
            return "<a href=\"/en/business/1/about\">$match[1]</a>";
            break;
        case 'career':
            return "<a href=\"/en/main/2/about\">$match[1]</a>";
            break;
        default:
            return "";
            break;
    }
}, $Rtm);
echo $Rtm;

Output (for your input string):

<a href="/en/main/2/about"> Test Career 12</a><a href="/en/business/1/about"> Testing11</a><a href="/en/main/profile_page_link/1"> Username</a>some text

Demo on 3v4l.org

Toto · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-22 12:37:50Z

1

Use @\[([^][]*?)\] instead of @\[(.*?)\] Demo & explanation.

Do the rtrim only once avfter all the replacements.

$Rtm = '@[ Test Career 12](career:235)@[ Testing11](business:2)@[ Username](user:1)some text';

if (preg_match("/@\[([^][]*?)\]\(user:(.*?)\)/", $Rtm, $match)) {
    $Rtm = preg_replace("/@\[([^][]*?)\]\(user:(.*?)\)/", '<a href="/en/main/profile_page_link/$2">$1</a>, ', $Rtm);
}

if (preg_match("/@\[([^][]*?)\]\(business:(.*?)\)/", $Rtm, $match)) {
    $Rtm = preg_replace("/@\[([^][]*?)\]\(business:(.*?)\)/", '<a href="/en/business/$2/about">$1</a>, ', $Rtm);
}

if (preg_match("/@\[([^][]*?)\]\(career:(.*?)\)/", $Rtm, $match)) {
    $Rtm = preg_replace("/@\[([^][]*?)\]\(career:(.*?)\)/", '<a href="/en/main/$2/about">$1</a>, ', $Rtm);
}
$Rtm = rtrim($Rtm, ', ');

echo $Rtm;

edited Jun 22, 2020 at 12:37

answered Jun 22, 2020 at 9:18

Toto

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4 Comments

Jithin Varghese Over a year ago

if I change $slug = $match[2] and $Rtm = '@[ Test Career 12](career:235)@[ Testing11](business:2)@[ Testing12](business:10)@[ Username](user:1)some text';. Then it is not working.

Toto Over a year ago

Where does $slug = $match[2] come from?

Jithin Varghese Over a year ago

To get the dynamic content

Jithin Varghese Over a year ago

I think we can use substr_replace($Rtm, ' ', strrpos($Rtm, ', '), 1) to remove last occurance of comma.

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