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PHP : Function Reference : String Functions : substr_replace

substr_replace

Replace text within a portion of a string (PHP 4, PHP 5)
mixed substr_replace ( mixed string, string replacement, int start [, int length] )

Example 2476. substr_replace() example

<?php
$var
= 'ABCDEFGH:/MNRPQR/';
echo
"Original: $var<hr />\n";

/* These two examples replace all of $var with 'bob'. */
echo substr_replace($var, 'bob', 0) . "<br />\n";
echo
substr_replace($var, 'bob', 0, strlen($var)) . "<br />\n";

/* Insert 'bob' right at the beginning of $var. */
echo substr_replace($var, 'bob', 0, 0) . "<br />\n";

/* These next two replace 'MNRPQR' in $var with 'bob'. */
echo substr_replace($var, 'bob', 10, -1) . "<br />\n";
echo
substr_replace($var, 'bob', -7, -1) . "<br />\n";

/* Delete 'MNRPQR' from $var. */
echo substr_replace($var, '', 10, -1) . "<br />\n";
?>

Related Examples ( Source code ) » substr_replace



Code Examples / Notes » substr_replace

jgainey

[Editor's note: for a much simpler solution, use number_format()]
I had a situation in which I needed to add a comma to the third position of a number(the price of something).



$price = "12000";
$price = substr_replace ($price, ',', -3, 0)";
the result would be 12,000


the -3 counts from right to left. a regular 3 would count from left to right
I hope this helps...


danieldoorduin

Using substr_replace() can be avoided by using substr() instead:
<?
$string = substr($string, 0, $position_needle).$replace.substr($string, $position_needle+$length_needle);
?>
This can be useful when you need to replace parts of multibyte strings like strings encoded with utf-8. There isn't a multibute variant for substr_replace(), but for php substr() there is mb_substr(). For more information on multibyte strings see http://nl3.php.net/manual/en/ref.mbstring.php


thomasnospam

To abbreviate links into '...' if they outreach a certain amount of space; use the preg_replace function instead.
For instance you grabbed the headlines of a news site for use on your own page and the lines are to long:
asuming the raw material is stored in $unedited;
$edited = preg_replace("/(>)([[:print:]]{52,})(<)/e", "'\\1'.substr_replace('\\2 ', '...', '48').'\\3'", $unedited);
echo $edited;
This will shorten strings longer than 52 characters into 51 characters, with the last being three dots...


geniusdex

This is my version of making dotted strings:
<?php
function dot($str, $len, $dots = "...") {
   if (strlen($str) > $len) {
       $dotlen = strlen($dots);
       substr_replace($str, $dots, $len - $dotlen);
   }
}
?>


www.kigoobe.com

The two truncate functions provided below, have some major short comings.
1. They may cut a word in half
2. In case you are using htmlentities to get user input or are using wysiwyg editors to get user input, you can get truncated text like "he told C&eac..." instead of "he told Cécile" or "he told".
Here is what I use -
<?php
function truncate($text,$numb) {
// source: www.kigoobe.com, please keep this if you are using the function
$text = html_entity_decode($text, ENT_QUOTES);
if (strlen($text) > $numb) {
$text = substr($text, 0, $numb);
$text = substr($text,0,strrpos($text," "));
$etc = " ...";  
$text = $text.$etc;
}  
$text = htmlentities($text, ENT_QUOTES);  
return $text;
}
// Now, to use this function, you can call that as -
truncate($text, 75);
?>


philip

The substr_replace() function is extremely slow in PHP versions prior to 4.3.5 and 5.0.0 so consider using an alternative before this time.

neon

The easiest way (I think) to add trailing dots after a string which in my case are too long is:
<?
function dots($num, $string) {
if (strlen($string) < $num) {
$string = substr_replace($string, '...', '-10', $num);
}
return $string;
}
Then on your page do something like:
<? echo dots("30" $row['title']); ?>
if the string is greater than the specific number it'll replace 3 dots.
I hope this helps =)
?>


klaas

THE DOT DOT DOT ISSUE
PROBLEM:
You want to abbreviate a string.
E.g. You want "BritneySpears" to show as "BritneySpe...", being only the ten first characters followed by "..."
SOLUTION:
<?
$oRIGINAL = "BritneySpears";
$sHORTER = substr_replace($oRIGINAL, '...', 10);
echo ($sHORTER);
?>
This will result in BritneySpe...


tony

The comment by geniusdex is a good one.  Short, simple functions are the best.  But if the string is not longer than the limit set, NOTHING is returned.  Here is the function re-done to always return a string:
<?php
function dot($str, $len, $dots = "...") {
if (strlen($str) > $len) {
$dotlen = strlen($dots);
$str = substr_replace($str, $dots, $len - $dotlen);
}
return $str;
}
?>


dmron

Regarding "...", even the short functions are too long and complicated, and there's no need to use substr_replace. substr() works better and is  way faster prior to 4.3.5 as the below poster stated.
function shorten( $str, $num = 100 ) {
 if( strlen( $str ) > $num ) $str = substr( $str, 0, $num ) . "...";
 return $str;
}


mrbrown8

Just to add to the examples, if replacement is longer than length, only the length number of chars are removed from string and all of replacement is put in its place, and therefor strlen($string) is inreased.
$var = 'ABCDEFGH:/MNRPQR/';
/*  Should return ABCDEFGH:/testingRPQR/   */
echo substr_replace ($var, 'testing', 10, 2);


guru evi

If your string is not long enough to meet what you specify in start and length then the replacement string is added towards the end of the string.
I wanted to replace the end of the string with ... if the string was too long to display (for instance article preview on a website). The problem was that my string was sometimes not that long and it still added the replacement string. So I wrote a function to replace substr_replace in my website:
function add_3dots($string,$repl,$start,$limit) {
if(strlen($string) > $limit) {
return substr_replace(strip_tags($string),$repl,$start,$limit);
} else {
return $string;
};
};
I use strip_tags to strip out the HTML otherwise you might get a screwed up HTML (when a tags open in the string, but because you cut-off it doesn't)


29-sep-2001 04:30

If you would like to remove characters from the start or end of a string, try the substr() function.
For example, to remove the last three characters from a string:
$string = "To be or not to be.";
$string = substr ($string, 0, -3);


stefan

If you are trying to use -0, I don't think it works.  For example:
substr_replace($file,'',-4,0)
There may be an alternative though...


joecorcoran

I've made a minor amendment to the function in the post below, to strip away the full stop (period) if the truncation occurs at the exact end of a sentence (the full stop spoils the ellipsis):
<?php
function truncate($text,$numb) {
$text = html_entity_decode($text, ENT_QUOTES);
if (strlen($text) > $numb) {
$text = substr($text, 0, $numb);
$text = substr($text,0,strrpos($text," "));
//This strips the full stop:
if ((substr($text, -1)) == ".") {
$text = substr($text,0,(strrpos($text,".")));
}
$etc = "...";
$text = $text.$etc;
}
$text = htmlentities($text, ENT_QUOTES);
return $text;
}
//Call function
truncate($text, 75);


thijs wijnmaalen thijs

I wrote a function that you can use for example in combination with a search script to cut off the articles that are too long.
<?php
function substr_index($text, $maxChars = 20, $splitter
= '...') {
$theReturn = $text;
$lastSpace = false;
if (strlen($text) > $maxChars) {
$theReturn = substr($text, 0, $maxChars - 1);
if (in_array(substr($text, $maxChars - 1, 1),
array(' ', '.', '!', '?'))) {
$theReturn .= substr($text, $maxChars, 1);
} else {
$theReturn = substr($theReturn, 0, $maxChars -
strlen($splitter));
$lastSpace = strrpos($theReturn, ' ');
if ($lastSpace !== false) {
$theReturn = substr($theReturn, 0, $lastSpace);
}
if (in_array(substr($theReturn, -1, 1), array(','))) {
$theReturn = substr($theReturn, 0, -1);
}
$theReturn .= $splitter;
}
}
return $theReturn;
}
?>


hermes

I suggest changing the function suggested by Guru Evi slightly. I found that it doesn't work as written here.
Original:
function add_3dots($string,$repl,$start,$limit) {
  if(strlen($string) > $limit) {
      return substr_replace(strip_tags($string),$repl,$start,$limit);
  } else {
      return $string;
  };
};
I suggest:
function add_3dots($string,$repl,$limit) {
  if(strlen($string) > $limit) {
  return substr_replace(strip_tags($string),$repl,$limit-strlen($repl));
  } else {
  return $string;
  }
}
Usage:
$max_length=10;//the max number of characters you want to display
$too_long_string="BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH etc.";//the string you want to shorten (if it's longer than the $limit)
$shorter_string=add_3_dots($too_long_string,"...",$max_length);


alishahnovin

I like the truncate function below...however, I found a few issues. Particularly if you have content that may have any kind of punctuation in it (?, !, ?!?, --, ..., .., ;, etc.)
The older function would end up looking like "blah blah?..." or "blah blah,..." which doesn't look so nice to me...
Here's my fix. It removes all trailing punctuation (that you include in the $punctuation string below) and then adds an ellipse. So even if it has an ellipse with 3 dots, 2 dots, 4 dots, it'll be removed, then re-added.
<?php
function truncate($text,$numb,$etc = "...") {
$text = html_entity_decode($text, ENT_QUOTES);
if (strlen($text) > $numb) {
$text = substr($text, 0, $numb);
$text = substr($text,0,strrpos($text," "));
$punctuation = ".!?:;,-"; //punctuation you want removed
$text = (strspn(strrev($text),  $punctuation)!=0)
?
substr($text, 0, -strspn(strrev($text),  $punctuation))
:
$text;
$text = $text.$etc;
}
$text = htmlentities($text, ENT_QUOTES);
return $text;
}
?>
I also needed a sort of "middle" truncate. The above function truncates around the end, but if you want to truncate around the middle (ie "Hello this is a long string." --> "Hello this ... long string.") you can use this (requires the truncate function):
<?php
function mtruncate($text, $numb, $etc = " ... ") {
$first_part = truncate(truncate($text, strlen($text)/2, ""), $numb/2, "");
$second_part = truncate(strrev(truncate(strrev($text), strlen($text)/2, "")), $numb/2, "");
return $first_part.$etc.$second_part;
}
?>


chuayw2000

I don't know if this function is multibyte safe but I've written a function that will do the same in multibyte mode.
<?php
//Check to see if it exists in case PHP has this function later
if (!function_exists("mb_substr_replace")){
  //Same parameters as substr_replace with the extra encoding parameter.
   function mb_substr_replace($string,$replacement,$start,$length=null,$encoding = null){
       if ($encoding == null){
           if ($length == null){
               return mb_substr($string,0,$start).$replacement;
           }
           else{
               return mb_substr($string,0,$start).$replacement.mb_substr($string,$start + $length);
           }
       }
       else{
           if ($length == null){
               return mb_substr($string,0,$start,$encoding).$replacement;
           }
           else{
               return mb_substr($string,0,$start,$encoding). $replacement. mb_substr($string,$start + $length,mb_strlen($string,$encoding),$encoding);
           }
       }
   }
}
?>


michael

I created this because of the need to mask a credit-card number like **** **** **** 8862
string mask ( string str, int start [, int length] )
mask() masks a copy of str delimited by the start and (optionally) length parameters with asterisks (*) in place of non-whitespace characters
<?php
function mask ( $str, $start = 0, $length = null ) {
$mask = preg_replace ( "/\S/", "*", $str );
if ( is_null ( $length )) {
$mask = substr ( $mask, $start );
$str = substr_replace ( $str, $mask, $start );
} else {
$mask = substr ( $mask, $start, $length );
$str = substr_replace ( $str, $mask, $start, $length );
}
return $str;
}
?>


tekrat

Here's a slightly revised version of the truncation function above.
Theres isn't much of a reason to  add in the $rep at the end of the original string is less then the truncation break point.
<?
function truncate($substring, $max = 50, $rep = '...') {
if(strlen($substring) < 1){
$string = $rep;
}else{
$string = $substring;
}

$leave = $max - strlen ($rep);

if(strlen($string) > $max){
return substr_replace($string, $rep, $leave);
}else{
return $string;
}

}
?>


david

Here is a simple function to shorten a string and add an ellipsis
<?php
/**
* truncate() Simple function to shorten a string and add an ellipsis
*
* @param string $string Origonal string
* @param integer $max Maximum length
* @param string $rep Replace with... (Default = '' - No elipsis -)
* @return string
* @author David Duong
**/
function truncate ($string, $max = 50, $rep = '') {
   $leave = $max - strlen ($rep);
   return substr_replace($string, $rep, $leave);
}
echo truncate ('akfhslakdhglksjdgh', 10, '...');
// Returns akfhsla... (10 chrs)
?>


ogt

Actually, just a minor correction to tekrat at 2d dot com's post:
Change the code....
<?
      if(strlen($substring) < 1){
          $string = $rep;
      }else{
          $string = $substring;
      }
?>
.... into....
<?
      if(strlen($substring) >= 1){
          $string = $substring;
      }
?>
.... otherwise you'll end up with the elipses (...) for any null strings.


titbits

A simple but useful 'pluralize' function using substr_replace:
 function pluralize($noun) {
   if ($noun{strlen($noun) -1} == "y")
     $noun = substr_replace($noun, "ies", strlen($noun) -1);
   else
     $noun .= "s";
   return $noun;
 }
Handy when displaying dynamic text.


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