Question

So a bit of background on what I am doing. I am taking an Excel spreadsheet with a large list of names and emails and sending them a smaller subset of the list based on a series of filters. To accomplish the filtering, I am breaking each Excel row into a JSON array and putting it into the DOM where I then use Javascript/jQuery to populate some hidden fields.

After all the filtering is finished, I have about a dozen comma-delimited lists that I then use PHP explode to turn back into arrays when the form is posted. I need to be able to switch out some variables in the email body with data specific to that person. Without going into too much more detail and risk confusing you, I basically need to replace some values in the body of the email with values from the PHP posted arrays.

I am pulling the posted data in and turning them into arrays with the following code:

//Bring in Hidden fields - turn into arrays
$companies = explode(",", $_POST['companies']);
$kw_signed = explode(",", $_POST['kw_signed']);
$header_rows = explode(",", $_POST['header_rows']);
$first_names = explode(",",$_POST['first_names']);
$emails = explode(",",$_POST['emails']);
$full_names = explode(",",$_POST['full_names']);
$markets = explode(",",$_POST['market']);
$zones = explode(",",$_POST['zones']);
$cities = explode(",",$_POST['cities']);
$states = explode(",",$_POST['states']);
$zipcodes = explode(",",$_POST['zipcodes']);
$p_factors = explode(",",$_POST['perf_factor']);

After I’ve created a bunch of arrays, I am using a for loop to go through the arrays and a foreach to replace the variables in the email body with their respective values, like this:

for($i=0; $i<$count; $i++) {
    //Create temp variable for body temp    
    $body_temp = $email_text;   
    //Replace header strings with value
    foreach($header_rows as $header) {
        if($header == '{first_name}') {
            $body_temp = str_replace($header, $first_name[$i], $body_temp);
        } else if($header == '{email}') {
            $body_temp = str_replace($header, $emails[$i], $body_temp);
        } else if($header == '{company}') {
            $body_temp = str_replace($header, $companies[$i], $body_temp);
        } else if($header == '{zone}') {
            $body_temp = str_replace($header, $zones[$i], $body_temp);
        } else if($header == '{market}') {
            $body_temp = str_replace($header, $markets[$i], $body_temp);
        } else if($header == '{city}') {
            $body_temp = str_replace($header, $cities[$i], $body_temp);
        } else if($header == '{state}') {
            $body_temp = str_replace($header, $states[$i], $body_temp);
        } else if($header == '{zip}') {
            $body_temp = str_replace($header, $zipcodes[$i], $body_temp);
        } else if($header == '{facility_type}') {
            $body_temp = str_replace($header, $facility_type[$i], $body_temp);
        }
    }

So, now to the question.
How can I do the replace more efficiently?
Do I create an object with array containing the information and loop through the array to replace the object’s variables for each posted name or am I going about this the wrong way entirely? Any insight would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

You can do replace as below

for($i=0; $i<$count; $i++) {
    //Create temp variable for body temp    
    $body_temp = $email_text;
    $body_temp = str_replace(array('{firsname}','{email}'), array($first_name[$i],$emails[$i]), $body_temp);  
}