[Tutorial] Implode with a regular expression

[Phantom]

For those that utilize the regular expression feature of preg_split(), you'll find that there is no available function to implode the array with the same regex. Therefore, I have recently made a small function that will act as a regex form of implode().

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<?php

/**
* Join string by a regular expression.
*
* @author      Joshua Rennert <admin@jphantom.com>
* @version     1.0.1
* @param       string     $glue        Regular expression
* @param       string     $text        Original text
* @param       array      $array       Array pieces
* @return      string
*/
function preg_join ( $glue, $text, $array )
{
   preg_match_all ( addslashes ( $glue ), $text, $paste );

   for ( $i = 0; $i < count ( $array ); $i++ )
   {
      $copy .= $array[$i] . $paste[0][$i];
   }
   
   $join = $copy;
   
   return $copy;
}

?>

So say you want to make the word 'upload' bold, but don't want it to interefere with a URL that has the word 'upload' in it (ex: http://yoursite.com/upload.php).

You would first split your text:

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$cut = preg_split ( '/<a href="(.*?)">/', $your_text );

Next, you would run a loop and bold the word 'upload':

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for ( $i = 0; $i < count ( $cut ); $i++ )
{
   $cut[$i] = preg_replace ( '/upload/i', '<b>upload</b>', $cut[$i] );
}

Finally, since there is no real function in PHP that can implode an array with regex, you can utilize the small function I created above:

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$highlighted_text = preg_join (  '/upload/i', $your_text, $cut );

Hope this helps you in some fashion. Happy coding.

// Phantom