Question

can you help me with a function to replace string as following:

The string the boo[k|ks] [is|are] on the table will output the book is on the table or the books are on the table according to an argument.

<?php
    $unformated_str = "the boo[k|ks] [is|are] on the table";
    $plural = true;

    echo formatstr($unformated_str, $plural);
?>

Output:

the books are on the table

Forgive my poor english. I hope I made my question clear enough.

Answer 1

Here is a function that uses preg_replace_callback():

function formatstr( $unformatted_str, $plural) {
    return preg_replace_callback( '#\[([^\]]+)\]#i', function( $match) use ($plural) {
        $choices = explode( '|', $match[1]);
        return ( $plural) ? $choices[1] : $choices[0];
    }, $unformatted_str);
}

$unformated_str = "the boo[k|ks] [is|are] on the table";

echo formatstr($unformated_str, false); // the book is on the table
echo formatstr($unformated_str, true); // the books are on the table

Try it out