Match case

[MrMancunian]

Hi,

I wrote a very simple piece of code that performs a search for a string. It finds whatever I search when I query the database like this:

$query = "SELECT * FROM blog WHERE subject LIKE '%$search%' OR message LIKE '%$search%'";

Next, I want to display the results and shade the search string. When a part of the result is exactly the same as the search string, it works fine. So Steven = Steven, but Steven <> steven. I use the following line of code to shade the search string:

$message = str_replace($search,"<font style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow\">" . $search . "</font>",$message);

What should I do to make sure that the search string will match, even if there is a capital off?

Thanks,

Steven

[ziycon]

Try using strtolower(): http://ie.php.net/strtolower

[Markus]

Or the case-insensitive version: str_ireplace().

Mark.

[MrMancunian]

I've thought of that, but I'm not sure how to implement it...Any ideas?

[Markus]

@MrMancunian
Stick an 'i' before the 'replace' in 'str_replace'.

;)

[MrMancunian]

@Markus
Haha, we posted our replies at the same time, I responded to ziycon :-)

When I use str_ireplace, the text that matches my search string changes to that string. So if the search string is Steven and the text has steven or StEvEn in it, it will change to Steven.

$message = str_ireplace($search,"<font style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow\">" . $search . "</font>",$message);

How do I change this?

[Markus]

@MrMancunian
Ah, then it gets a little more complicated. As far as I can tell, you'll need to use something like preg_replace() and regular expressions.

$text = "Mark mark mArK m ark";
 
$text = preg_replace('/(Mark)/i', '<font color="yellow">$1</font>', $text);
print $text;
 

Mark.

Edit: Tested - works.
Edit2: Dorm, you've got to type faster ;)

[MrMancunian]

@Markus
Ok, so $text is my $message. Why do you use ('/(Mark)/i'? What should I use instead?

Steven

[Dormilich]

@MrMancunian
because the text contained that word as example. and '/(Mark)/i' is the required RegEx for this.

@MrMancunian
e.g.

'/(Steven)/i'

[MrMancunian]

Ok, the capitals work...Now, the special characters! :-)

Maxima <> Màxima...How do I include this as well?

Steven

[Dormilich]

that’s abit tricky, you can use classes to catch that in the RegEx

"§M[aáà]xima§i"

though you might need something to construct the search pattern then

[MrMancunian]

Ouch, sounds like it's difficult. Can you explain how I use this for every possible character? Or can you point me to documentation which could be helpful?

Thanks,

Steven

[Markus]

Hmm, interesting.

My thoughts are you will have to 'normalize' the string, while making a note of which characters (and their position in the string) have been normalized. Then, once you have used your regular expression, de-normalize the string.

Sounds like a good job for a class.

Mark (goes to have a fiddle*!).

* With the programming - not whatever you were thinking ;)

[Markus]

And here is my first attempt: AccentedString.

Mark.

[hsriat]

Hi Steven,

Please do not use LIKE keyword for this purpose. Use MATCH-AGAINST for the search.

str_replace or str_ireplace will not solve your problem as php replacement is done after you have searched the database. It might give you correct results sometime, but not always.

You can have a look at an example similar to your case here.

[MrMancunian]

@Markus
Hi Mark,

Thanks for your efforts. As soon as I find the time for it, I'll take a look at it and see if I can implement it. I'll let you know!

Steven

[MrMancunian]

@hsriat
Thanks for your suggestion! I'll look into it as soon as possible :-)

Steven