Bold, italics, underline str_replac'd using the same char for opening and closing tags

[Jean-Fran?ois Lacrampe]

Hello,

I want to write a _very_ simple text parser that would replace a
string like:

"This is text with /italics/, *bold* and _underline_."

and generate automatically something like this:

"This is text with <i>italics</i>, <b>bold</b> and <span
class="underlin e">underline </span>."

I've found a lot of code snippets explaining how to do BBCode, but
BBCode has different opening and closing pseudo-tags. In my example,
the opening and closing tags are the same (either /, * or _). So I
need something slightly more intelligent that would count the number
of /, * or _ tags, see if that number is even or odd and decide
accordingly if it must replace the char with an opening or closing
tag. (I hope my wording makes sense. It's very clear in my head :-D)

How would you implement that? I reckon it can't be hard, but I just
can't figure how to do it right now!

Thanks for any insight!

[Janwillem Borleffs]

Jean-Fran?ois Lacrampe wrote:

Hello,

I want to write a _very_ simple text parser that would replace a
string like:

"This is text with /italics/, *bold* and _underline_."

and generate automatically something like this:

"This is text with <i>italics</i>, <b>bold</b> and <span
class="underlin e">underline </span>."

<?php
$str = "This is text with /italics/, *bold* and _underline_.";
$reg = array(
"!/(.+)/!U",
"/\*(.+)\*/U",
"/_(.+)_/U"
);
$replace = array(
"<i>$1</i>",
"<b>$1</b>",
"<u>$1</u>"
);
$str = preg_replace($r eg, $replace, $str);
print $str;
?>
JW

[Jean-Fran?ois Lacrampe]

"Janwillem Borleffs" <jw@jwscripts.c om> wrote in message news:<42******* *************** *@news.euronet. nl>...

<?php
$str = "This is text with /italics/, *bold* and _underline_.";
$reg = array(
"!/(.+)/!U",
"/\*(.+)\*/U",
"/_(.+)_/U"
);
$replace = array(
"<i>$1</i>",
"<b>$1</b>",
"<u>$1</u>"
);
$str = preg_replace($r eg, $replace, $str);
print $str;
?>
JW

WOW those perl regex are powerful! Every now and then I tell me I
should dig deeper and really understand them (beyond the basic stuff I
already know). This is pure and deep beauty! Now I want to learn them
NOW!

(If you (or anyone else) have and URL for a good tutorial on them,
please share, it will be greatly appreciated!)

Thanks, thanks and thanks again.
JFLac

[Janwillem Borleffs]

Jean-Fran?ois Lacrampe wrote:

(If you (or anyone else) have and URL for a good tutorial on them,
please share, it will be greatly appreciated!)

A good starting point would be:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/referen...ern.syntax.php

Don't forget to read the user contributions on this page, which include a
couple of useful links.
JW