Preg_replace regex to replace "rogue" apostrophes

Dev Shed Forums Sponsor:

January 28th, 2009, 07:11 PM

ryel01

Contributing User

Join Date: Nov 2005

Posts: 227

Time spent in forums: 1 Day 15 h 4 m 42 sec
Reputation Power: 15

Preg_replace regex to replace "rogue" apostrophes

Hi,

Following up on a previous question posted to the wrong forum...

I want to search for any "rogue" apostrophes in a long $string that don't match common usage, and replace them with a space.

For example. they're, I've, he'll will remain as-is. But with... they'vve, he'lele, big'ss the ' will be replaced by a space and effectively split the word in two within the string.

This is the regex I've got which seems to find the matches ok, I just don't know how to get it replacing unwanted apostrophes.

Can anyone help? Thanks, Regan.

Code:

$word = "they'll";

if ( preg_match("/([A-Za-z0-9]+)(\')(s|t|d|ll|re|ve|m)( |$)/i",$word,$matches) ) {
	die($matches[0]);
}

die('nomatch');

Last edited by ryel01 : January 28th, 2009 at 07:19 PM.

January 28th, 2009, 08:21 PM

ryel01

Contributing User

Join Date: Nov 2005

Posts: 227

Time spent in forums: 1 Day 15 h 4 m 42 sec
Reputation Power: 15

righto, I seem to have this working to some degree...

Code:

$string = "they'll do it a'ere he'dd be that's ok";

$string = preg_replace("/\'(?!(s|t|d|ll|re|ve|m|nt)( |$))/i"," ",$string);

die($string);

If anyone can see any obvious mistakes your comments would be welcomed.

regan

January 28th, 2009, 08:50 PM

requinix

Still alive

Join Date: Mar 2007

Location: Washington, USA

Posts: 12,720

Folding Points: 417516 Folding Title: Super Ultimate Folder - Level 1

Time spent in forums: 5 Months 1 Week 4 Days 7 h 43 m 56 sec
Reputation Power: 8969

Send a message via Google Talk to requinix

That's basically what I would have done, though instead of ( |$) I might have used \b (=word boundary).

__________________
Site rules and FAQ | Project Suggestions | mod_rewrite guide | PHP New User Guide and FAQ - PHP Stickies | Regex Resources

January 28th, 2009, 09:20 PM

ryel01

Contributing User

Join Date: Nov 2005

Posts: 227

Time spent in forums: 1 Day 15 h 4 m 42 sec
Reputation Power: 15

Quote:

Originally Posted by requinix

instead of ( |$) I might have used \b (=word boundary).

hi requinix.

can you change my regex to show me how the \b works?

it should also check for some leading characters before the ' but I'm still working on that one...

(I'm not exactly the expect when it comes to regex!)

regan

Viewing: Dev Shed Forums > Programming Languages - More > Regex Programming > Preg_replace regex to replace "rogue" apostrophes

« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

Developer Shed Advertisers and Affiliates

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts vB code is On Smilies are On [IMG] code is On HTML code is Off

View Your Warnings | New Posts | Latest News | Latest Threads | Shoutbox

Forum Jump