preg_replace_callback

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

preg_replace_callbackPerform 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.

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;
?>

See Also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License v3.0 or later.
https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-replace-callback.php