Question

Using PHP and/or Codeigniter, I want to create some string templates to be store in a database so that later, they can be used to print out a customize statement.

For example, I want to store this "hello %s! you are the %d visitor." in my database so that later I can plug in a name and number to print out this message "hello bob! you are the 100 visitor".

Are there any available functions to easily do this or will I have to write my own script using preg_match/preg_replace?

---

This works:

<?

$test = 'hello %s';
$name = 'bob';
printf( $test, $name );

?>

Read more: http://php.net/manual/en/function.printf.php

Answer 1

you can use sprintf, but you’d always need to know the exact order in which to feed the template its arguments. I’d suggest something more along the lines of

// this works only on php 5.3 and up
function sformat($template, array $params)
{
    return str_replace(
        array_map(
            function($key)
            {
             return '{'.$key.'}';
            }, array_keys($params)), 
        array_values($params), $template);
}

// or in the case of a php version < 5.3
function sformat($template, array $params)
{
    $output = $template;
    foreach($params as $key => $value)
    {
        $output = str_replace('{'.$key.'}', $value, $output);
    }
    return $output;
}



echo sformat('Hello, {what}!', array('what' => 'World'));

// outputs: "Hello, World!"