Str replace within preg relace

[scifind]

Trying to replace spaces with underscores within a preg replace

I have tried

PHP Code:

$mystring = preg_replace("'<i>([a-zA-Z0-9 ]*)</i>'", "<a href=\"".str_replace(" ","_",$1).".html\">$1</a>", $mystring); 


and get a parse error, unexpected T_LNUMBER, expecting T_VARIABLE or '$' in error.

Any suggestions

[drivetowin]

Have you tried it with single quotes rather than double quotes in the str_replace

i.e. str_replace(' ','_',$1)

[scifind]

Still same errors I am afraid

[Swiss]

Variable names can not have a number as the first character, letters or underscores only.

[dmorison]

A few issues going on here.

Firstly; in your match expression; you are trying to match against the closing HTML tag </i>. Unfortunately; the forward slash character delimits the match component from modifier codes that can change the behaviour of the regular expression parser. Therefore, it is necessary to escape the forward-slash in the match expression using the back slash.

Secondly; in order for the second parameter to preg_replace to be processed as PHP code, you need to use the "e" modifier in the match expression. A modifier (see previous paragraph) is included in the match expression at the end, preceeded by the forward slash character. Overall, the match expression you need is:

'/<i>([a-zA-Z0-9 ]*)<\/i>/e'

Finally; in order for the second parameter to be processed as PHP code it must be a string value containing PHP, not actual PHP itself... The code must return a string when evaluated; in other words it must start and end with either double or single-quotes. Any other double-or single quotes within the string must be escaped if required. I think the match expression that should work for what you want to do is:

'"<a href=\'".str_replace(" ","_","$1").".html\'>$1</a>"'

Overall, this makes your final code:

PHP Code:

$mystring = preg_replace('/<i>([a-zA-Z0-9 ]*)<\/i>/e', '"<a href=\'".str_replace(" ","_","$1").".html\'>$1</a>"', $mystring); 


Note that this removes the italic tags. If you want to keep the italics you will need to include them in the replacement string.

Hope that works.....