Regular Expressions help!

[Massimo at HOME]

Probably, it is simple but honestly I am not able to solve this
problem.

I am trying to use eregi_replace() function to substitute some strings
in my input.

I would like to substitute the "ac" substring when it is a single word
(i.e. "ac" or "ac " but not "ace" or "mace").

I tried something like:

ereg_replace("a c[^[:alpha:]]*","subst...",$ inputstring));

But it fails...

I read the regex help and online documentation but I was not able to
figure how to obtain it...

Please help!

Thanks,
Massimo
--

http://incuso.altervista.org

[Andy Hassall]

Re: Regular Expressions help!

On 13 Nov 2004 06:50:06 -0800, numismatica@gma il.com (Massimo at HOME) wrote:
[color=blue]
>Probably, it is simple but honestly I am not able to solve this
>problem.
>
>I am trying to use eregi_replace() function to substitute some strings
>in my input.
>
>I would like to substitute the "ac" substring when it is a single word
>(i.e. "ac" or "ac " but not "ace" or "mace").
>
>I tried something like:
>
>ereg_replace(" ac[^[:alpha:]]*","subst...",$ inputstring));
>
>But it fails...
>
>I read the regex help and online documentation but I was not able to
>figure how to obtain it...[/color]

Don't use the ereg* functions, use the preg* functions. They're typically
faster, and have a more powerful expression language (Perl-compatible).

http://uk.php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php

http://uk.php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.syntax.php

http://uk.php.net/preg_replace

Have a look at \b - zero-width word boundary assertion.

--
Andy Hassall / <andy@andyh.co. uk> / <http://www.andyh.co.uk >
<http://www.andyhsoftwa re.co.uk/space> Space: disk usage analysis tool

[Daniel Tryba]

Re: Regular Expressions help!

Massimo at HOME <numismatica@gm ail.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> I would like to substitute the "ac" substring when it is a single word
> (i.e. "ac" or "ac " but not "ace" or "mace").
>
> I tried something like:
>
> ereg_replace("a c[^[:alpha:]]*","subst...",$ inputstring));
>
> But it fails...[/color]

Why use ereg_replace?

$ cat /tmp/foo.php
<?php

$str='foo ac mace bar';

echo "before: $str\n";
$str=preg_repla ce('/\bac\b/','xx',$str);
echo "after : $str\n";
?>
$ php4 /tmp/foo.php
before: foo ac mace bar
after : foo xx mace bar
$

[Gary L. Burnore]

Re: Regular Expressions help!

On 13 Nov 2004 15:15:02 GMT, Daniel Tryba <spam@tryba.inv alid> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Massimo at HOME <numismatica@gm ail.com> wrote:[color=green]
>> I would like to substitute the "ac" substring when it is a single word
>> (i.e. "ac" or "ac " but not "ace" or "mace").
>>
>> I tried something like:
>>
>> ereg_replace("a c[^[:alpha:]]*","subst...",$ inputstring));
>>
>> But it fails...[/color]
>
>Why use ereg_replace?[/color]

Why ask why? He was asking for help. Why demean his question?

[color=blue]
>
>$ cat /tmp/foo.php
><?php
>
>$str='foo ac mace bar';
>
>echo "before: $str\n";
>$str=preg_repl ace('/\bac\b/','xx',$str);
>echo "after : $str\n";
>?>
>$ php4 /tmp/foo.php
>before: foo ac mace bar
>after : foo xx mace bar
>$[/color]

Neat answer, but I liked the first and yet similar response. The
poster wasn't a jerk and gave several URLs and a tip about \b so the
person asking the question could learn for himself.


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[Daniel Tryba]

Re: Regular Expressions help!

Gary L. Burnore <gburnore@datab asix.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> Neat answer, but I liked the first and yet similar response. The
> poster wasn't a jerk and gave several URLs and a tip about \b so the
> person asking the question could learn for himself.[/color]

Thank you for calling me a jerk.

If you have nothing nice to say blabla...

[Gary L. Burnore]

Re: Regular Expressions help!

On 13 Nov 2004 15:24:32 GMT, Daniel Tryba <spam@tryba.inv alid> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Gary L. Burnore <gburnore@datab asix.com> wrote:[color=green]
>> Neat answer, but I liked the first and yet similar response. The
>> poster wasn't a jerk and gave several URLs and a tip about \b so the
>> person asking the question could learn for himself.[/color]
>
>Thank you for calling me a jerk.[/color]

I said he wasn't a jerk. I didn't say you were. But then, if the shoe
fits. I do note that you can't argue my point.
--
gburnore@databa six dot com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
How you look depends on where you go.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary L. Burnore | ÝÛ³ºÝ³Þ³ºÝ³³ÝÛº ݳ޳ºÝ³Ý³Þ³ºÝ³Ý ÝÛ³
| ÝÛ³ºÝ³Þ³ºÝ³³ÝÛº ݳ޳ºÝ³Ý³Þ³ºÝ³Ý ÝÛ³
DataBasix | ÝÛ³ºÝ³Þ³ºÝ³³ÝÛº ݳ޳ºÝ³Ý³Þ³ºÝ³Ý ÝÛ³
| ÝÛ³ 3 4 1 4 2 ݳ޳ 6 9 0 6 9 ÝÛ³
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=============== =============== =============== =============== ===============
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[Daniel Tryba]

Re: Regular Expressions help!

Gary L. Burnore <gburnore@datab asix.com> wrote:[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> Neat answer, but I liked the first and yet similar response. The
>>> poster wasn't a jerk and gave several URLs and a tip about \b so the
>>> person asking the question could learn for himself.[/color]
>>
>>Thank you for calling me a jerk.[/color]
>
> I said he wasn't a jerk. I didn't say you were. But then, if the shoe
> fits. I do note that you can't argue my point.[/color]

If I only could find out that your point was...

Oh wait, I don't actually care.

[John Dunlop]

Re: Regular Expressions help!

Gary L. Burnore wrote:
[color=blue]
> On 13 Nov 2004 15:15:02 GMT, Daniel Tryba <spam@tryba.inv alid> wrote:[/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
> > Why use ereg_replace?[/color]
>
> Why ask why?[/color]

Why not?

--
Jock

[Massimo at HOME]

Re: Regular Expressions help!

Gary L. Burnore <gburnore@datab asix.com> wrote in message news:<cn58as$cj 5$2@blackhelico pter.databasix. com>...[color=blue]
> Neat answer, but I liked the first and yet similar response. The
> poster wasn't a jerk and gave several URLs and a tip about \b so the
> person asking the question could learn for himself.[/color]

I already learnead about \b and read the docs, but I was missing the /

Thanks,
Massimo
--

http://incuso.altervista.org