I am writing an extension to CodeIgniter's language class that will remove a certain language line from a certain file. The script is provided an array key to determine which file line to remove. I don't believe I have written my regex properly to detect a config file line. Here is the cat_names language file:
<?php
$lang['cat_123'] = 'Transportation';
$lang['cat_124'] = 'Restaurants';
This is my language class extension:
public function remove_line($line, $file){
$CI =& get_instance();
$CI->load->helper('file');
foreach($this->existing_langs as $lang){
$lang_contents = read_file($this->lang_path.'/'.$lang.'/'.$file.'_lang.php');
$new_contents = preg_replace("^$lang\[\$line\] \= (.*?)\
^", '', $lang_contents);
write_file($this->lang_path.'/'.$lang.'/'.$file.'_lang.php', 'w+');
}
}
I use the following to call the method that removes lines from the language file:
$this->lang->remove_line('cat_123', 'cat_names');
Why isn't my preg_replace removing the lines? Note: the language file is not read-only.
"^$lang\[\$line\] \= (.*?)\
^"
"^\\$"."lang\['$line'\] = (.*?)
^"
Your RegEx doesn't work because:
$lang in double quoted string is interpreted as variable (also, this variable doesn't exist);' inside square brackets;$line, which is a variable, is escaped.Change it in this way:
"^\\$"."lang\['$line'\] = (.*?)
^"
Also note that the = does not need to be escaped and the way to escape $ followed by characters.
In addition, I suggest you use a single-quoted string and set delimiters to another character (in regular expressions ^ means begin of line. Here it works, but can be confusing).
This is single-quote equivalent with different delimiters:
'/\$lang\[\''.$line.'\'\] = (.*?)
/'