Question

Using sprintf() how can I replace multiple placeholders in a string with one value? I know normally you will pass 1 variable for each placeholder, but I understand if you use the format %1$s instead of %s you can pass a single value, but I can’t seem to get it to work.

I’m actually using this as a parametrised sql query, but for ease here’s a single example

$name   = "Bill";
$string = "hello ?, your name is ? ";
$string = sprintf(str_replace("?","'%1$s'",$string ),$name);

This doesn’t seem to work. I’d also like it to work for a single placeholder, e.g.

$name   = "Bill";
$string = "hello ?";
$string = sprintf(str_replace("?","'%1$s'",$string ),$name);

1. Is it possible to replace multiple placeholders from one value, and 2. Can a single statement be written to handle single or multiple placeholders?

Note: I’m specifically not talking about passing arrays using vsprintf() as there is only 1 value. Seems pointless to me to pass the same value multiple times.

Thanks

Answer 1

Yes and Yes.

It doesn’t work because you are evaluating $s in str_replace. As a rule of thumb, I always use ' instead of " when declaring string literals.

$name   = 'Bill';
$string = 'hello ?, your name is ? ';
$string = sprintf(str_replace('?','\'%1$s\'',$string ),$name);