CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phppreg-replace
powtac
powtac

Reputation: 41080

Replace all chars with space except one word

$string = 'onetwothreefourfive';

How can I turn this into

$string = '      three        ';

When my input is three?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 512

Answers (3)

salathe
salathe

Reputation: 51970

No need to use crude string manipulation, regex to the rescue!

$string = preg_replace('/(three\K)?./s', ' ', $string);

For details on what is used, if anything is unclear, check out the PCRE Pattern Syntax chapter of the PHP manual.

Upvotes: 2

Explosion Pills
Explosion Pills

Reputation: 191819

No need to use expensive and/or complicated regex:

function replace_space($str, $keep, $hold) {
   $str = explode($keep, $str);
   foreach ($str as &$piece) {
      $piece = str_repeat($hold, strlen($piece));
   }
   return implode($keep, $str);
}

echo replace_space('onetwothreefourfivethreefour', 'three', ' ');

Tested and works with multiple needles in the haystack.

Upvotes: 1

Marc B
Marc B

Reputation: 360872

$first_chunk = str_repeat(' ', strpos($string, 'three'));
$last_chunk = str_repeat(' ', strlen($string) - strpos($string, 'three') - strlen($string));

$string = $first_chunk . 'three' . $last_chunk;

not tested, doesn't handle multiple needles in the haystack, YMMV, yada yada yada.

Upvotes: 1

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