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PHP

Deleted User
Posted by Deleted User

str_replace wildcard or RegExp

Is there some kind of php regular expression that will target and replace the file name below. ie, replace any file name whether it be 'index.php' or 'about.php' or 'foofoo.php' ?

<?php echo str_replace('ANYTHING.php', '', $path ; ?>

1 Answer

Randy Hoyt
STAFF
Randy Hoyt
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Randy Hoyt
Randy Hoyt
Treehouse Guest Teacher

Yes, there is a way to do it. Regular expressions are a bit of a black art and usually take me a few tries to get it right. You want to use the function preg_replace(). This would be my first crack at it:

<?php

    $string = '/path/to/folder/anything.php';
    $pattern = '/\/[^\/]+\.php/';
    $replacement = '/replacement.php';
    echo preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $string);

?>

Here's what I'm trying to accomplish (but regular expressions always need a bit of trial and error):

  • The $pattern says (at least I tried to make it say) "find every occurrence of a slash followed by one or more characters that are not a slash followed by a dot-p-h-p."
  • The $replacement says "replace any occurrence of that pattern with the following: slash-r-e-p-l-a-c-e-m-e-n-t-dot-p-h-p."

Does that help at all?