$string = ":abc and :def have apples.";
$replacements = array('Mary', 'Jane');
should become:
Mary and Jane have apples.
Right now I'm doing it like this:
preg_match_all('/:(\w+)/', $string, $matches);
foreach($matches[0] as $index => $match)
$string = str_replace($match, $replacements[$index], $string);
Can I do this in a single run, using something like preg_replace?
You could use preg_replace_callback with a callback that consumes your replacements one after the other:
$string = ":abc and :def have apples.";
$replacements = array('Mary', 'Jane');
echo preg_replace_callback('/:\w+/', function($matches) use (&$replacements) {
return array_shift($replacements);
}, $string);
Output:
Mary and Jane have apples.
$string = ":abc and :def have apples.";
$replacements = array('Mary', 'Jane');
echo preg_replace("/:\\w+/e", 'array_shift($replacements)', $string);
Output:
Mary and Jane have apples.
Try this
$to_replace = array(':abc', ':def', ':ghi');
$replace_with = array('Marry', 'Jane', 'Bob');
$string = ":abc and :def have apples, but :ghi doesn't";
$string = strtr($string, array_combine($to_replace, $replace_with));
echo $string;
here is result: http://sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/code/7a4c5b00f68ec40fdb35ce189d26446e3a2501c2
For a Multiple and Full array replacement by Associative Key you can use this to match your regex pattern:
$words=array("_saudation_"=>"Hello", "_animal_"=>"cat", "_animal_sound_"=>"MEooow");
$source=" _saudation_! My Animal is a _animal_ and it says _animal_sound_ ... _animal_sound_ , _no_match_";
function translate_arrays($source,$words){
return (preg_replace_callback("/\b_(\w*)_\b/u", function($match) use ($words) { if(isset($words[$match[0]])){ return ($words[$match[0]]); }else{ return($match[0]); } }, $source));
}
echo translate_arrays($source,$words);
//returns: Hello! My Animal is a cat and it says MEooow ... MEooow , _no_match_
*Notice, thats although "_no_match_" lacks translation, it will match during regex, but preserve its key. And keys can repeat many times.
/\b_(\w*)_\b/u. BTW, code above has a syntax error, and extra parenthesis at the end.