Question

I have a template file that uses the structure
[FIRSTNAME]
[LASTNAME]

etc etc…. and I will be doing a search and replace on it. One thing that I would like to do is that when the template get’s sent back, IF I haven’t stipulated, [FIRSTNAME]…. it still shows in the template… I would like to make it NULL IF I haven’t stipulated any data to that variable.

in my code i’m using the FILE_GET_CONTENTS

$q = file_get_contents($filename);
foreach ($this->dataArray as $key => $value) 
{
    $q = str_replace('['.$key.']', $value, $q);
}
return $q;

So once that loop is over filling in the proper data, I need to do another search and replace for any variables left using, [FIRSTNAME]

I hope this makes sense any someone can steer me in the right direction.

Cheers

Answer 1

It sounds like you just want to add a line like:

$q = preg_replace('/\[[^\]]*\]/', '' , $q);

After all your defined substitutions, to eliminate any remaining square-bracketed words.

If you want to be concise, you can replace the whole function with a variation of the “one line template engine” at http://www.webmasterworld.com/php/3444822.htm, with square brackets instead of curlies.