I have searched for a solution to a problem on this site but have not found a way to do this task using regex (or perhaps something just shortened that uses less memory). I am attempting to parse a string where text after a specific pattern (& the pattern itself) is to be removed from the same line. The text prior to to the pattern and also any line not containing the search pattern should be unedited.
Here is a working example:
$text = 'This is a test to remove single lines.<br />
The line below has the open type bbcode (case insensitive) that is to be removed.<br />
The text on the same line that follows the bbcode should also be removed.<br />
this text should remain[test]this text should be removed on this line only!<br />
the other lines should remain.<br />
done.<br />';
$remove = '[test]';
$lines = preg_split('/?
/', $text);
foreach ($lines as $line)
{
$check = substr($line, 0, stripos($line, $remove));
$new[] = !empty($check) ? $check . '<br />' : $line;
}
$newText = implode($new);
echo $newText;
The above code works as expected but I would like to know how to do this using regex or perhaps something that uses a lot less code and memory. I have attempted to do this using regex from examples on this site + some tinkering but have not been able to get the result that is required. The solution should also use code that is compatible with PHP 5.5 syntax (no \e modifier). Using an array for the removal pattern will also be fitting as I may need to do a search for multiple patterns (although it is not shown in my example).
Thank you.
Thanks to frightangel for showing me the proper regex pattern.
Below is the necessary code to accomplish what was asked above:
$text = 'This is a test to remove single lines.<br />
The line below has the open type bbcode (case insensitive) that is to be removed.<br />
The text on the same line that follows the bbcode should also be removed.<br />
this text should remain[test]this text should be removed on this line only!<br />
the other lines should remain.<br />
[bbc]done.<br />
[another]this line should not be affected.<br />
it works!!<br />';
$removals = array('[test]', '[bbc]');
$remove = str_replace(array('[', ']'), array('~\[', '\].*?(?=\<br\s\/\>|\
|\)~mi'), $removals);
$text = preg_replace($remove, '', $text);
echo $text;
The text that it searches for actually comes from a mysql query that feeds an array so I changed what is shown above to use what will more or less be used ($removals being that array).
The only problem left for me is that if text was prior to the removal then it would be better to leave the final line break from that line instead of omitting it. It should only be omitted if all text from a single line is removed.
Try this way:
$text = 'This is a test to remove single lines.<br />
The line below has the open type bbcode (case insensitive) that is to be removed.<br />
The text on the same line that follows the bbcode should also be removed.
this text should remain[test]this text should be removed on this line only!<br />
the other lines should remain.<br />
done.<br />';
$remove = 'test';
$text = preg_replace("/\[$remove\].*(?=\<br\s\/\>)/m", '', $text);
$text = preg_replace("/^(\<br\s\/\>)|(\
)|(\)$/m","",$text);
echo $text;
Here's regex explanation: http://regex101.com/r/nW1bG8
try this, and tell me if thats what you want
if not, tell me, i probably didnt understand your question
preg_replace("/\[\S+\].+<[^>]+\s?\/>|<[^>]+\s?\/>/m","",$text);