asked on

PHP strip part of string if exists

I have built a blog in php, but have found that if a user copies text from a Word doc, then that text when pasted into the blog's editor will include Word code above the text; The Word code starts with . What I need to do is if the Word code is present, to strip it from the text that follows.

The code that needs to be removed looks like:

DanielIser

just use str_replace()
$string = word paste
$word_phrase = "";
$string = str_replace($word_prhase, "", $string);

Shinesh Premrajan

better option is to use a regular expression to clean up the mess, since str_replace probably will not be suitable for the dynamic content that is coming in the text.

$word_phrase = 'patt  this is ';

$string=preg_replace("/\<\!\-\-(.*)\-\-\>/i","=",$word_phrase);

Hope this helps

Shinesh Premrajan

sorry that was the testing code, this is the correct one
$string=preg_replace("/\<\!\-\-(.*)\-\-\>/i","",$word_phrase);

cyberkiwi

If you don't care about any comments at all (including but not limited to the Word comments , then you can use this

$string=" some text I want to keep  <br/>Is it greedy?";
$regex = "#()#Ue";
$output = preg_replace($regex,"",$string);

replace $string with your actual text variable

peterbrowne

ASKER

Actually, the Word garbage may be part of the user's posting, so that this code precedes the actual text as typed in Word. When the user pastes from Word, the intended posting and the code comes in together...so I need to strip out the code from the intended message, ie everthing before '-->'

cyberkiwi

The ? and /U in the regex causes preg_replace to be non-greedy.
If you have multiple comments, not having them causes everything from the start of the first comment to the end of last comment to disappear.

peterbrowne

ASKER

Not working... I've used this:

$comment = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['addnewcomment']);
$regex = "#()#Ue";
$output = preg_replace($regex,"",$comment);

I still get:

 Nullam ligula velit, ullamcorper eu tempor sed, feugiat vitae orci. Phasellus mi purus, ullamcorper in pellentesque at, imperdiet ac lacus. Praesent ultrices, mauris id euismod sollicitudin, nisl lectus consequat neque, ac tristique sem diam sit amet lorem.

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cyberkiwi

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peterbrowne

ASKER

nO STILL DOESN'T WORK:

$comment = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['addnewcomment']);
$regex = "#()#Ue";
$comment = preg_replace($regex,"",$comment);

The only other place that 4comment is used is:

//add comment to database 'comment' table
if (isset($_POST['submit']))
{
$query_comment = "INSERT INTO comment (comment_id,comment,comment_date,user_id,page_id)
VALUES ('','$comment',NOW(),'$user_id','$page_id')";
$result_comment = mysql_query($query_comment, $connection) or die(mysql_error());
}

Avinash Zala

try this attached code:

Hope this helps,
Addy

<?php
	
	function get_string_between($string, $start, $end)
	{
		$string = " ".$string; 
		$ini = strpos($string,$start); 
		if ($ini == 0) return ""; 
		$ini += strlen($start); 
		$len = strpos($string,$end,$ini) - $ini; 
		return substr($string,$ini,$len); 
	}
	
	$str='demofinr is this <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> while gone.';
	
	$between_str= get_string_between($str,'<!--','-->');
	echo str_replace('-->','',str_replace('<!--','',str_replace($between_str,'',$str)));
?>

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cyberkiwi

I forgot about the multi-line issue. The s option at the end here makes preg_replace work with multi-line strings

$regex = "#()#Ues";

peterbrowne

ASKER

Actually your solution was correct. I checked what was actually going into the database for these user inputs (comments) and '' was becoming '-->'.

So, the following works:

$comment = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['addnewcomment']);
$regex = "#()#Ue";
$comment = preg_replace($regex,"",$comment);

Thanks for your help and others for your suggestions!!

Cheers,

Peter

peterbrowne

ASKER

Mmmm...looks like it's substituting here too:

<p>&lt;!--

and

--&gt;

so:

$comment = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['addnewcomment']);
$regex = "#(<p>&lt;!--)(.*)?(--&gt;)#Ue";
$comment = preg_replace($regex,"",$comment);

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