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Asked: 2026-05-20T23:28:10+00:00

I’m trying to parse strings that represent source code, something like this: [code lang=html]

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I’m trying to parse strings that represent source code, something like this:

[code lang="html"]
  <div>stuff</div>
[/code]
<div>stuff</div>

As you can see from my previous 20 questions, I tried to do it with PHP’s regex functions, but ran into many problems, especially when the string is very big…

Do you guys know a BB parser class written in PHP that I can use for this, instead of regexes?

What I need it to do is:

  • be able to convert all content from within [code] tags with html entities
  • be able to run some kind of a filter (a callback function of mine) only on content outside of the [code] tags

thank you

edit:
I ended up using this:

  • convert all <pre> and <code> tags to [pre] and [code]: 

    str_replace(array('<pre>', '</pre>', '<code>', '</code>'), array('[pre]', '[/pre]', '[code]', '[/code]'), $content);

  • get contents from between [code]..[/code] and [pre]…[/pre] and do the html entity conversion

    preg_replace_callback('/(.?)\[(pre|code)\b(.*?)(?:(\/))?\](?:(.+?)\[\/\2\])?(.?)/s', 'self::specialchars', $content);

    (i stole this pattern from wordpress shortcode functions 🙂

  • store the entity converted content in a temporary array variable, and replace the one from $content with a unique ID

  • I can now safely run my filter on $content, because there’s no code in it, just the ID (this filter does a strip_tags on the entire text and converts stuff like http://blabla.com to links)

  • replace the unique IDs from $content with the converted code blocks from the array variable

do you think it’s ok?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Do you guys know a BB parser class written in PHP that I can use for this, instead of regexes?

    There’s the BBCode PECL extension, but you’d need to compile it.

    There’s also PEAR’s HTML_BBCodeParser, though I can’t vouch for how effective it is.

    There are also a few elsewhere, but I think they’re all pretty rigid.

    I don’t believe that either of those do what you’re looking for, with regard to having a callback for tag contents (and then @webarto is totally correct in that HTMLPurifier is the right tool to use when processing the contents). You might have to write your own here. I’ve previously written about my experiences doing the same that you might find helpful.

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