Question

I am using str_replace to replace anything inside a link text (anchor text).

I want to replace the word ‘SMS’ from the anchor text inside a wordpress category name,

<?php echo str_replace("SMS","",(the_category(', '))) ; ?>

but it doesn’t work. It does work for a replacement of normal string,

$txt = "Sufyan"
    <?php echo str_replace("S","a",$txt) ; ?> 

The above code works but it doesn’t work when I want to replace something from anchor text.

Answer 1

the_category() is a template tag with echos its results without returning them. Basic rule of thumb: if it starts with ‘the_‘ it echos without returning.

Change that line to

<?php echo str_replace("SMS","",(get_the_category_list(', '))) ; ?>

and str_replace() should work as expected.