Link Search Menu Expand Document
LZone

PHP preg_replace Examples

1. SyntaxWhile full syntax is
mixed preg_replace ( mixed $pattern , mixed 
$replacement , mixed $subject [, int $limit = -1 [, int &$count ]] )

2. Simple Replacing

$result = preg_replace('/abc/', 'def', $string);   # Replace all 'abc' with 'def'
$result = preg_replace('/abc/i', 'def', $string);  # Replace with case insensitive matching
$result = preg_replace('/\s+/', '', $string);      # Strip all whitespaces

3. Advanced Usage

Multiple replacements:

$result = preg_replace(
    array('/pattern1/', '/pattern2/'),
    array('replace1', 'replace2'),
    $string
);

Replacement Back References:

$result = preg_replace('/abc(def)hij/', '/\\1/', $string);
$result = preg_replace('/abc(def)hij/', '/$1/', $string);
$result = preg_replace('/abc(def)hij/', '/${1}/', $string);

Do only a finite number of replacements:

# Perform maximum of 5 replacements
$result = preg_replace('/abc/', 'def', $string, -1, 5);

Multi-line replacement

# Strip HTML tag
$result = preg_replace('#<span id="15">.*</span>#m', '', $string);

Suggested Reading