Best approach to this using preg_replace/match

[fartsniff]

i found this code out in the ng, and its seems long and clunky,
i am still experimenting with preg_match and _replace, but the
syntax is a bit confusing. it seems i always misplace or mistype
something.

this is the code that i am trying to replace with better, optimized code.
i would like to make a preg_match and then preg_replace for this, and if
a match is found, just removing it.

i started with this:
(preg_match ("/(\*\/)|(\/\*)|(\-\-)|(#|;)/", $line))
and
$line = preg_replace ("/(\*\/)|(\/\*)|(\-\-)|(#|;)/", "", $line) . ";";

and this is the total items that i am searching for:
$line = str_replace("." , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("\" ", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("'" , "", $line);
$line = str_replace("+" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("-", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("*" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("/", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("!" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("%" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace(">" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("<" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("^" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("(" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace(")" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("[", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("]", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("{" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("}" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("\\ ", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("=" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("$" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("#" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("?" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("~" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace(":" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("_" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace(" ", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("&a mp;", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("&c opy;", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("&n bsp;", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("&q uot;", " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("&u uml;", "ü", $line);
$line = str_replace("&U uml;", "Ü", $line);
$line = str_replace("&" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace(";" , " ", $line);
$line = str_replace("\n ", " ", $line);

should i just leave all of the str_replaces ? or can preg handle all of
these ?
thanks.

[Jason Dumler]

Re: Best approach to this using preg_replace/match

fartsniff wrote:[color=blue]
> i found this code out in the ng, and its seems long and clunky,[/color]

Yeah, but sometimes you gotta take the long and clunky road
[color=blue]
> this is the code that i am trying to replace with better, optimized code.[/color]

See my comment below about arrays.
[color=blue]
> i would like to make a preg_match and then preg_replace for this, and if
> a match is found, just removing it.[/color]

Since all the characters you are trying to replace are not part of a
simple class of characters (\s is spaces, \d is digits, etc.)
[color=blue]
>[/color]

<snip lots of code>
[color=blue]
>
> should i just leave all of the str_replaces ? or can preg handle all of
> these ?
> thanks.
>
>[/color]

According to the documentation, you can use arrays with str_replace.
Something like this:

<?
$search = array("+", "-", "&amp;");
$replace = array(" ", " ", " ");

$result = str_replace($se arch, $replace, $line);
// or, if they are all replaced with the same thing
$result = str_replace($se arch, " ", $line);
?>

You build a big array at first, but it's not so hard to maintain, once
you get the initial array in place. This *seems* less clunky...

Jason