preg_replace_callback

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.5, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

preg_replace_callback — Perform a regular expression search and replace using a callback

Description

preg_replace_callback(
    string|array $pattern,
    callable $callback,
    string|array $subject,
    int $limit = -1,
    int &$count = null,
    int $flags = 0
): string|array|null

The behavior of this function is almost identical to preg_replace(), except for the fact that instead of replacement parameter, one should specify a callback.

Parameters

pattern

The pattern to search for. It can be either a string or an array with strings.

callback

A callback that will be called and passed an array of matched elements in the subject string. The callback should return the replacement string. This is the callback signature:

handler(array $matches): string

You'll often need the callback function for a preg_replace_callback() in just one place. In this case you can use an anonymous function to declare the callback within the call to preg_replace_callback(). By doing it this way you have all information for the call in one place and do not clutter the function namespace with a callback function's name not used anywhere else.

Example #1 preg_replace_callback() and anonymous function

<?php
/* a unix-style command line filter to convert uppercase
 * letters at the beginning of paragraphs to lowercase */
$fp = fopen("php://stdin", "r") or die("can't read stdin");
while (!feof($fp)) {
    $line = fgets($fp);
    $line = preg_replace_callback(
        '|<p>\s*\w|',
        function ($matches) {
            return strtolower($matches[0]);
        },
        $line
    );
    echo $line;
}
fclose($fp);
?>

subject

The string or an array with strings to search and replace.

limit

The maximum possible replacements for each pattern in each subject string. Defaults to -1 (no limit).

count

If specified, this variable will be filled with the number of replacements done.

flags

flags can be a combination of the PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE and PREG_UNMATCHED_AS_NULL flags, which influence the format of the matches array. See the description in preg_match() for more details.

Return Values

preg_replace_callback() returns an array if the subject parameter is an array, or a string otherwise. On errors the return value is null

If matches are found, the new subject will be returned, otherwise subject will be returned unchanged.

Errors/Exceptions

If the regex pattern passed does not compile to a valid regex, an E_WARNING is emitted.

Changelog

Version	Description
7.4.0	The `flags` parameter was added.

Examples

Example #2 preg_replace_callback() example

<?php
// this text was used in 2002
// we want to get this up to date for 2003
$text = "April fools day is 04/01/2002\n";
$text.= "Last christmas was 12/24/2001\n";
// the callback function
function next_year($matches)
{
  // as usual: $matches[0] is the complete match
  // $matches[1] the match for the first subpattern
  // enclosed in '(...)' and so on
  return $matches[1].($matches[2]+1);
}
echo preg_replace_callback(
            "|(\d{2}/\d{2}/)(\d{4})|",
            "next_year",
            $text);

?>

The above example will output:

April fools day is 04/01/2003
Last christmas was 12/24/2002

Example #3 preg_replace_callback() using recursive structure to handle encapsulated BB code

<?php
$input = "plain [indent] deep [indent] deeper [/indent] deep [/indent] plain";

function parseTagsRecursive($input)
{

    $regex = '#\[indent]((?:[^[]|\[(?!/?indent])|(?R))+)\[/indent]#';

    if (is_array($input)) {
        $input = '<div style="margin-left: 10px">'.$input[1].'</div>';
    }

    return preg_replace_callback($regex, 'parseTagsRecursive', $input);
}

$output = parseTagsRecursive($input);

echo $output;
?>

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User Contributed Notes 22 notes

down

104

Richard ¶

12 years ago

The easiest way to pass more than one parameters to the callback function is with the 'use' keyword. 



[This is better than using global, because it works even when we are already inside a function.]



In this example, the callback function is an anonymous function, which takes one argument, $match, supplied by preg_replace_callback().  The extra 

"use ($ten)" puts the $ten variable into scope for the function.



<?php

$string = "Some numbers: one: 1; two: 2; three: 3 end";

$ten = 10;

$newstring = preg_replace_callback(

    '/(\\d+)/',

    function($match) use ($ten) { return (($match[0] + $ten)); },

    $string

    );

echo $newstring;

#prints "Some numbers: one: 11; two: 12; three: 13 end";

?>

down

Sjon at hortensius dot net ¶

17 years ago

preg_replace_callback returns NULL when pcre.backtrack_limit is reached; this sometimes occurs faster then you might expect. No error is raised either; so don't forget to check for NULL yourself

down

Yuri ¶

12 years ago

If you want to call non-static function inside your class, you can do something like this. 

For PHP 5.2 use second argument like array($this, 'replace'):
<?php
class test_preg_callback{

  private function process($text){
    $reg = "/\{([0-9a-zA-Z\- ]+)\:([0-9a-zA-Z\- ]+):?\}/";
    return preg_replace_callback($reg, array($this, 'replace'), $text);
  }
  
  private function replace($matches){
    if (method_exists($this, $matches[1])){
      return @$this->$matches[1]($matches[2]);     
    }
  }  
}
?>

For PHP 5.3 use second argument like "self::replace":
<?php
class test_preg_callback{

  private function process($text){
    $reg = "/\{([0-9a-zA-Z\- ]+)\:([0-9a-zA-Z\- ]+):?\}/";
    return preg_replace_callback($reg, "self::replace", $text);
  }
  
  private function replace($matches){
    if (method_exists($this, $matches[1])){
      return @$this->$matches[1]($matches[2]);     
    }
  }  
}
?>

down

carlos dot ballesteros at softonic dot com ¶

15 years ago

A simple function to replace a list of complete words or terms in a string (for PHP 5.3 or above because of the closure):

<?php
function replace_words($list, $line, $callback) {
    return preg_replace_callback(
        '/(^|[^\\w\\-])(' . implode('|', array_map('preg_quote', $list)) . ')($|[^\\w\\-])/mi',
        function($v) use ($callback) { return $v[1] . $callback($v[2]) . $v[3]; },
        $line
    );
}
?>

Example of usage:
<?php
$list = array('php', 'apache web server');
$str = "php and the apache web server work fine together. php-gtk, for example, won't match. apache web servers shouldn't too.";

echo replace_words($list, $str, function($v) {
    return "<strong>{$v}</strong>";
});
?>

down

Drake ¶

14 years ago

The good version of the class PhpHex2Str
<?php
class PhpHex2Str
{
    private $strings;

    private static function x_hex2str($hex) {
        $hex = substr($hex[0], 1);
        $str = '';
        for($i=0;$i < strlen($hex);$i+=2) {
            $str.=chr(hexdec(substr($hex,$i,2)));
        }
        return $str;
    }

    public function decode($strings = null) {
        $this->strings = (string) $strings;
        return preg_replace_callback('#\%[a-zA-Z0-9]{2}#', 'PhpHex2Str::x_hex2str', $this->strings);
    }
}

// Exemple
$obj = new PhpHex2Str;

$strings = $obj->decode($strings);
var_dump($strings);
?>

down

matt at mattsoft dot net ¶

18 years ago

it is much better on preformance and better practice to use the preg_replace_callback function instead of preg_replace with the e modifier.

function a($text){return($text);}

// 2.76 seconds to run 50000 times
preg_replace("/\{(.*?)\}/e","a('\\1','\\2','\\3',\$b)",$a);

// 0.97 seconds to run 50000 times
preg_replace_callback("/\{(.*?)\}/s","a",$a);

down

Fredow ¶

9 years ago

<?php

// Nice little function that convert a string to uppercase by keeping the HTMLentities intact.

public static function strtoupper_entities($str) {



    $patternMajEntities = '/(\&([A-Z])(ACUTE|CEDIL|CARON|CIRC|GRAVE|ORN|RING|SLASH|TH|TILDE|UML)\;)+/';

    $str = preg_replace_callback ($patternMajEntities, 

        function ($matches) {

            return "&" . $matches[2] . strtolower($matches[3]) . ";";

        }, strtoupper($str));

    

    return $str;

}

down

T-Soloveychik at ya dot ru ¶

11 years ago

Text lines numeration:
<?PHP
// Multieline text:
    $Text = "
Some 
Multieline
text
for
numeration";

// For count:
    $GLOBALS["LineNUMBER"] = 1;

// Replace linestart on number:
    PRINT preg_replace_callback("/^/m",function ()
        {
            return $GLOBALS["LineNUMBER"]++."  ";
        },
        $Text);

?>

1
2 Some
3 Multieline
4 text
5 for
6 numeration

down

development at HashNotAdam dot com ¶

12 years ago

From PHP 5.3 you can use an anonymous function to pass local variables into the callback.



<?php



public function replace_variables( $subject, $otherVars ) {

    $linkPatterns = array(

        '/(<a .*)href=(")([^"]*)"([^>]*)>/U',

        "/(<a .*)href=(')([^']*)'([^>]*)>/U"

    );



    $callback = function( $matches ) use ( $otherVars ) {

        $this->replace_callback($matches, $otherVars);

    };



    return preg_replace_callback($this->patterns, $callback, $subject);

}



public function replace_callback($matches, $otherVars) {

    return $matches[1] . $otherVars['myVar'];

}

?>

down

kkatpki ¶

11 years ago

Note that, as of PHP 5.3, it seems that named subpatterns are now included in the matches array by their named key as well as their numerical key.

To build off of Chris' previous example, as of PHP 5.3, you *can* do

<?php

preg_replace_callback('/(?<char>[a-z])/', 'callback', 'word');

function callback($matches) {
    var_dump($matches);
}

?>

and expect to get $matches['char'] in your function. * BUT ONLY AS OF PHP 5.3 *

Please be mindful of this if you intend to support PHP 5.2.

down

Florian Arndt ¶

12 years ago

This small class allows PHP users to read JSON files with include statements in them. For instance the include {{{ "relative/to/including.json" }}} is replaced by the content of the json file located at "relative/to/including.json".

<?php
    /**
     * Handles JSON files with includes
     * Purpose: handle bigger JSON files by featuring "includes"
     * 
     * @author Florian Arndt
     */
    class JWI {
        /**
         * Parses a JSON file and returns its contents
         * @param String $filename
         */
        static function read($filename) {
            if(!file_exists($filename))
                throw new Exception('<b>JWI Error: JSON file <tt>'.$filename.'</tt> not found!</b>');
            $content = join('', file($filename));
            $dir = dirname($filename);
            /**
             * replace
             *   include statements
             * with
             *   content of the file to include
             * recursively
             */
            $content = preg_replace_callback(
                '/{{{\s*"\s*(.+)\s*"\s*}}}/', // >include file< - pattern
                create_function(
                    '$matches', // callback parameter
                    sprintf(
                        '$fn = "%s/".$matches[1];'.
                        'return JWI::read($fn);',
                        realpath(dirname($filename))
                    )
                ),
                $content
            );
            return $content;
        }
    }

down

chris at ocproducts dot com ¶

14 years ago

The pcre.backtrack_limit option (added in PHP 5.2) can trigger a NULL return, with no errors. The default pcre.backtrack_limit value is 100000. If you have a match that exceeds about half this limit it triggers a NULL response.
e.g. My limit was at 100000 but 500500 triggered a NULL response. I'm not running unicode but I *guess* PCRE runs in utf-16.

down

Anonymous ¶

14 years ago

Created this to fetch the link and name of an anchor tag. I use this when cleaning an HTML email to text. Using regex for HTML is not recommended but for this purpose I see no issue with it. This is not designed to work for nested anchors.

A note to keep in mind:
I was primarily concerned with valid HTML so if attributes do no use ' or " to contain the values then this will need to be tweaked.
If you can edit this to work better, please let me know.
<?php
/**
 * Replaces anchor tags with text
 * - Will search string and replace all anchor tags with text (case insensitive)
 * 
 * How it works:
 * - Searches string for an anchor tag, checks to make sure it matches the criteria
 *         Anchor search criteria:
 *             - 1 - <a (must have the start of the anchor tag )
 *             - 2 - Can have any number of spaces or other attributes before and after the href attribute
 *             - 3 - Must close the anchor tag
 * 
 * - Once the check has passed it will then replace the anchor tag with the string replacement
 * - The string replacement can be customized
 * 
 * Know issue:
 * - This will not work for anchors that do not use a ' or " to contain the attributes. 
 *         (i.e.- <a href=http: //php.net>PHP.net</a> will not be replaced)
 */
function replaceAnchorsWithText($data) {
    /**
     * Had to modify $regex so it could post to the site... so I broke it into 6 parts.
     */
    $regex  = '/(<a\s*'; // Start of anchor tag
    $regex .= '(.*?)\s*'; // Any attributes or spaces that may or may not exist
    $regex .= 'href=[\'"]+?\s*(?P<link>\S+)\s*[\'"]+?'; // Grab the link
    $regex .= '\s*(.*?)\s*>\s*'; // Any attributes or spaces that may or may not exist before closing tag 
    $regex .= '(?P<name>\S+)'; // Grab the name
    $regex .= '\s*<\/a>)/i'; // Any number of spaces between the closing anchor tag (case insensitive)
    
    if (is_array($data)) {
        // This is what will replace the link (modify to you liking)
        $data = "{$data['name']}({$data['link']})";
    }
    return preg_replace_callback($regex, 'replaceAnchorsWithText', $data);
}

$input  = 'Test 1: <a href="http: //php.net1">PHP.NET1</a>.<br />';
$input .= 'Test 2: <A name="test" HREF=\'HTTP: //PHP.NET2\' target="_blank">PHP.NET2</A>.<BR />';
$input .= 'Test 3: <a hRef=http: //php.net3>php.net3</a><br />';
$input .= 'This last line had nothing to do with any of this';

echo replaceAnchorsWithText($input).'<hr/>';
?>
Will output:
Test 1: PHP.NET1(http: //php.net1).
Test 2: PHP.NET2(HTTP: //PHP.NET2).
Test 3: php.net3 (is still an anchor)
This last line had nothing to do with any of this

down

Evgeny ¶

1 year ago

Please note! if you have defined namespace,
the usage format must me changed:

echo preg_replace_callback(
            "|(\d{2}/\d{2}/)(\d{4})|",
            __NAMESPACE__ . '\\next_year',
            $text);

down

steven at nevvix dot com ¶

6 years ago

<?php
$format = <<<SQL
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS :database;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON :database_name.* TO ':user'@':host';
SET PASSWORD = PASSWORD(':pass');
SQL;
$args = ["database"=>"people", "user"=>"staff", "pass"=>"pass123", "host"=>"localhost"];

preg_replace_callback("/:(\w+)/", function ($matches) use ($args) {
    return @$args[$matches[1]] ?: $matches[0];
}, $format);

/*
Result:

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS people;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON :database_name.* TO 'staff'@'localhost';
SET PASSWORD = PASSWORD('pass123');

The `:database_name` placeholder doesn't exist as a matching key in `$args` so it's returned as is.
This way you know you need to correct the array by adding the "database_name" item.
*/

down

-2

2962051004 at qq dot com ¶

6 years ago

<?php

/**
 * 将中文转为Html实体
 * Turning Chinese into Html entity
 * Author QiangGe
 * Mail 2962051004@qq.com
 *
*/

$str = <<<EOT
你好 world
EOT;

function ChineseToEntity($str) {
 return preg_replace_callback(
        '/[\x{4e00}-\x{9fa5}]/u', // utf-8 
        // '/[\x7f-\xff]+/', // if gb2312
        function ($matches) {
            $json = json_encode(array($matches[0]));
            preg_match('/\[\"(.*)\"\]/', $json, $arr);
            /*
             * 通过json_encode函数将中文转为unicode
             * 然后用正则取出unicode
             * Turn the Chinese into Unicode through the json_encode function, then extract Unicode from regular.
             * I think this idea is seamless.
            */
            return '&#x'. str_replace('\\u', '', $arr[1]). ';';
        }, $str
   );
}

echo ChineseToEntity($str);
// &#x4f60;&#x597d; world

down

-1

Drake ¶

14 years ago

Decode Hexa to Strings =)
<?php
class PhpHex2Str
{
    private $strings;

    private function x_hex2str($hex) {
        $hex = substr($hex[0], 1);
        $str = '';
        for($i=0;$i < strlen($hex);$i+=2) {
            $str.=chr(hexdec(substr($hex,$i,2)));
        }
        return $str;
    }

    public function decode($strings = null) {
        $this->strings = (string) $strings;
        return preg_replace_callback('#\%[a-zA-Z0-9]{2}#', 'x_hex2str', $this->strings);
    }
}

// Example
$strings = 'a %20 b%0A h %27 h %23';

$obj = new PhpHex2Str;
$strings = $obj->decode($strings);
var_dump($strings);
?>

down

-2

Anteaus ¶

9 years ago

Be aware that as of php5.4 you MUST NOT pass variables by reference, as in  '[, int &$count ]' - if you do it will result in a fatal error. 
I think the writer is trying to say that the function accepts the parameter by reference, but that is not how it reads. -Manual needs updating/clarifying ?

down

-3

alex dot cs00 at yahoo dot ca ¶

14 years ago

Don't use this function to fetch BBCode, as explained. If you have some text that runs over 5000 chars (average), it will run out of its limit and makes you download the PHP page. 



According to this, you should instead use something more advanced yet complex. You will need a function called "str_replace_once()" (search for it), one called "countWord()", the famous "after()", "before()", "between()". 



str_replace_once does same as str_replace, but only replace first occurence. As for countWord, I guess you know how to count the number of a word occurence. As for after, before and between, this is a function that you may find easily somewhere on the site by a user. Else, you can do it. 



The following function is able to do all blocks, supposing [code] and [/code], you might wish things between parents dont get parsed, including [code] if inside of another [code]. 



<?php

function prepareCode($code, $op, $end)

{

    $ix = 0;

    $iy = 0;

    $nbr_Op = countWord($op, $code);

    while($ix < $nbr_Op)

    {

        if(in_string($op, before($end, $code), false))

        {

            // The following piece of code replace the default [tag] by [tag:#]

            $code = str_replace_once($op, substr($op, 0, -1).':'.$ix.']', $code); 

            $iy++;

        }

        elseif(in_string($end, before($op, $code), false))

        {

            $iy = $iy-1;

            $code = str_replace_once($end, substr($end, 0, -1).':'.($ix-1).']', $code);

            $ix = $ix-2;

        }

        $ix++;

    }

    while(in_string($end, $code))

    {

        $code = str_replace_once($end, substr($end, 0, -1).':'.($iy-1).']', $code);

        $iy=$iy-1;

    }



    $code = preg_replace('#\\'.substr($end, 0, 1).':-[0-9]\]#i', '', $code);

    if(in_string(substr($op, 0, -1).':0]', $code) && !in_string(substr($end, 0, -1).':0]', $code))

    {

        $code .= substr($end, 0, -1).":0]";

    }

    return $code;

}

?>



$code returns the whole text semi-formated. You only need to use it as :

$code = prepareCode($code="Your text", $op="[tag]" , $end="[/tag]");

Then just replace the parent tags :

str_replace("[tag:0]", "<tag>", $code);

str_replace("[/tag:0]", "</tag>", $code);

So at the end something like :

[

down

-1

jobowo ¶

2 years ago

Note that when using the 'Use ($variable)' with preg_replace_callback, if you wish the value to be altered by the anonymous function, you must pass the value in by reference. eg preg_replace_callback($pattern, function($matches) use (&$alterThis) { $alterThis+=$something;},$string);

down

-5

Underdog ¶

10 years ago

For the callback I advise only to use a permanent or anonymous function. 

Depending on the usage you may encounter memory issues when using create_function for the callback possibly due to attempts at being compatible with PHP 5.2 or prior. Some servers  refuse to update their PHP  for whatever reason.

Please peruse the create_function documentation for more details regarding its memory usage.

Regards.

down

-3

tgage at nobigfoot dot com ¶

6 years ago

To use variable from the parent scope of the anonymous callback function passed to preg_replace_callback(), utilize the use() parameter.

$var1 = "one";
$var2 = "two";
$line = preg_replace_callback('/^.*$/',
            function( $matches ) use ( $var1, $var2 ) {
                return( $var1 . " " . $var2 );
            }, $line);

Will replace the entire string with the concatenated values or $var1 and $var2 ("one two") from the parent scope.

＋add a note

preg_replace_callback

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Errors/Exceptions

Changelog

Examples

See Also

Found A Problem?

User Contributed Notes 22 notes