Implement preg_replace() on a 2d array

Question

I have a relatively large array of elements which I want to search for a string and replace any matches. I'm currently trying to do this using preg_replace and regular expressions:

preg_replace("/\d?\dIPT\.\w/", "IPT", $array);

I want to get all values which match either 00IPT.A or 0IPT.A (with 0 representing any numerical character and A representing any letter) and replace them with IPT. However, I'm getting array to string conversion notices. Is there any way to get preg_replace to accept an array data source? If not, is there any other way I could achieve this?

The documentation says that preg_replace should be able to accept array sources — this is the reason I'm asking.

The string or an array with strings to search and replace. If subject is an array, then the search and replace is performed on every entry of subject, and the return value is an array as well.

The array is multidimensional if that helps (has multiple arrays under one main array).

This question is relatively Unclear because there is no minimal reproducible example. — mickmackusa
– mickmackusa ♦, Commented Jan 11 at 8:02

Tom Fenech · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-21 09:21:31Z

16

preg_replace doesn't modify in place. To permanently modify $array, you simply need to assign the result of preg_replace to it:

$array = preg_replace("/\d{1,2}IPT\.\w/", "IPT", $array);

works for me.

$array = array('00IPT.A', '0IPT.A');
$array = preg_replace("/\d{1,2}IPT\.\w/", "IPT", $array);
var_dump($array);
// output: array(2) { [0]=> string(3) "IPT" [1]=> string(3) "IPT" }

Note: the \d{1,2} means one or two digits.

If you want to do this to a two-dimensional array, you need to loop through the first dimension:

$array = array( array('00IPT.A', 'notmatch'), array('neither', '0IPT.A') );    
foreach ($array as &$row) {
    $row = preg_replace("/\d{1,2}IPT\.\w/", "IPT", $row);
}
var_dump($array);

output:

array(2) { 
    [0]=> array(2) { 
        [0]=> string(3) "IPT" 
        [1]=> string(8) "notmatch" 
    } 
    [1]=> &array(2) { 
        [0]=> string(7) "neither" 
        [1]=> string(3) "IPT" 
    } 
}

Note that you have to loop through each row by reference (&$row) otherwise the original array will not be modified.

edited Mar 21, 2014 at 9:21

answered Mar 21, 2014 at 8:46

Tom Fenech

75.1k13 gold badges119 silver badges154 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

Carey Over a year ago

Would this work on multidimensional arrays though? My arrays are organised like this: array(4500) { [0]=> array(19) { [0]=> string(0) "" [1]=> string(32) "SNIP" [2]=> string(0) "" [3]=> string(0) "" [4]=> string(0) "" [5]=> string(0) "" [6]=> string(0) "" }

Tom Fenech Over a year ago

And which elements to you want to perform the replacement on? All of them?

Carey Over a year ago

I'd like to replace the values of all elements which match the regex search term. Some arrays after the one I listed include: string(5) "9IPT.A" [4]=> string(3) "TEA" [5]=> string(2) "BT" [6]=> string(5) "10RC1" [7]=> string(3) "IRE" [8]=> string(2) "A3" [9]=> string(5) "10RC1" So an example would be leaving 10RC1 untouched but changing 9IPT.A to IPT. Would this be possible?

Andresch Serj · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-21 08:45:28Z

1

Your value does not sit in the array as a simple element but as a subset right? Like so?

array (
  array ('id' => 45, 'name' => 'peter', 'whatyouarelookingfor' => '5F'),
  array ('id' => 87, 'name' => 'susan', 'whatyouarelookingfor' => '8C'),
  array ('id' => 92, 'name' => 'frank', 'whatyouarelookingfor' => '9R')
)

if so:

<?php

foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
  $array[$key]['whatyouarelookingfor'] =  
    preg_replace("/\d?\dIPT\.\w/", "IPT", $value['whatyouarelookingfor']);
}

Or if more elements have this, just go broader:

<?php

foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
  $array[$key] =  
    preg_replace("/\d?\dIPT\.\w/", "IPT", $value);
}

answered Mar 21, 2014 at 8:45

Andresch Serj

37.8k16 gold badges63 silver badges106 bronze badges

Comments

just somebody · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-21 08:45:31Z

1

your $array contains some further arrays. preg_replace works fine with arrays of strings, but not with arrays of arrays [of arrays...] of strings.

answered Mar 21, 2014 at 8:45

just somebody

19.4k6 gold badges55 silver badges65 bronze badges

1 Comment

Carey Over a year ago

Oh so preg_replace doesn't work with multidimensional arrays? Dam, do you know a way around this then?

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Implement preg_replace() on a 2d array

3 Answers 3

3 Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

3 Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related