Question

I need a php function that will remove and return any references to an excel file within exclamation points. So if I have:

$string = "Blah blah blah, this is a paragraph \n\n
           and some more copy. \n\n

           !/uploads/excel_doc.xls! \n\n

           Blah blah. The end."

I want to have a function like this:

function excel_file($string){

    $string = _[_reg ex filter__]___;
    return $string;
}

Where $string returned is:

array($original_string, $excel_file_name);

// original string should replace the excel file reference with the string "[excel]"

Answer 1

how about

$string = "Blah blah blah, this is a paragraph \n\n
           and some more copy. \n\n

           !/uploads/excel_doc.xls! \n\n

           Blah blah. The end.";


function excel_file($string){
    preg_match('/!([^!]+)!/m', $string, $m);
    $string = preg_replace('/!([^!]+)!/m', '[excel]', $string);
    return array($string, $m[1]);
}          
$arr = excel_file($string);
print_r($arr);

output:

Array
(
    [0] => Blah blah blah, this is a paragraph


           and some more copy.



           [excel]



           Blah blah. The end.
    [1] => /uploads/excel_doc.xls
)