preg_replace_callback

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.5)

preg_replace_callback -- Perform a regular expression search and replace using a callback

Description

mixed preg_replace_callback ( mixed pattern, callback callback, mixed subject [, int limit])

The behavior of this function is almost identical to preg_replace(), except for the fact that instead of replacement parameter, one should specify a callback that will be called and passed an array of matched elements in the subject string. The callback should return the replacement string.

Пример 1. preg_replace_callback() example

<?php
  // this text was used in 2002
  // we want to get this up to date for 2003
  $text = "April fools day is 04/01/2002\n";  
  $text.= "Last christmas was 12/24/2001\n";  
  
  // the callback function
  function next_year($matches) {
    // as usual: $matches[0] is the complete match
    // $matches[1] the match for the first subpattern
    // enclosed in '(...)' and so on
    return $matches[1].($matches[2]+1);
  }

  echo preg_replace_callback(
              "|(\d{2}/\d{2}/)(\d{4})|", 
              "next_year",
              $text);

  // result is:
  // April fools day is 04/01/2003
  // Last christmas was 12/24/2002
?>

You'll often need the callback function for a preg_replace_callback() in just one place. In this case you can use create_function() to declare an anonymous function as callback within the call to preg_replace_callback(). By doing it this way you have all information for the call in one place and do not clutter the function namespace with a callback functions name not used anywhere else.

Пример 2. preg_replace_callback() and create_function()

<?php
  // a unix-style command line filter to convert uppercase 
  // letters at the beginning of paragraphs to lowercase 

	$fp = fopen("php://stdin", "r") or die("can't read stdin");
	while (!feof($fp)) {
		$line = fgets($fp);
		$line = preg_replace_callback(
              '|<p>\s*\w|', 
              create_function(
                // single quotes are essential here,
                // or alternative escape all $ as \$
                '$matches',
                'return strtolower($matches[0]);'
              ),
              $line
            );
		echo $line;
	}
	fclose($fp);
?>

See also preg_replace(), create_function().