preg_match on a flag replacement function

[Greywacke]

hi there,i am currently developing a function to be inserted into the header to replace flags in templates (which are defined by %FLAGNAME optional parameter% anywhere, any amount of times, in any string passed. sofar, testing - i have the following PHP:

<?phpif (!headers_sent()) header("Content-Type: text/plain",true);function setflags($arr) {	$ret = array();	foreach ($arr as $r) {		$r = str_replace("%","",$r);		// use to split by first space if found, to get flag values		$r = preg_split("/ /",$r,2);		$a = $r[0];		$b = $r[1];		switch ($r) {			case "FIRST":				array_push($ret,"Hi ".$;				break;			case "SECOND":				array_push($ret,"Welcome");				break;			case "THIRD":				array_push($ret,"To ".$;				break;			case "FOURTH":				array_push($ret,"Hope you enjoy!");				break;			case "FIFTH":				array_push($ret,"The QuoteMe.ZA.NET Team.");				break;		}	}	return $ret;}function populateflags($str) {	// get array of flags used in string to parse (parse entire template contents' as string) and loop through array	preg_match("/%[^%]+%/",$str,$matches);	// get the values to populate with	$replace = setflags($matches[0]);	// populate flags used by doing a switch flagname procedure, recursively calling populateflags(flag) before returning	return str_replace($matches[0],$replace,$str);}$string = "%FIRST Pierre du Toit%,%SECOND% - %THIRD a complete nexus regarding consumer quoting on multiple products.%%FOURTH%Love, Light and Life - Namaste.%FIFTH%";echo populateflags($string);?>

now atm this returns the following page...

<br /><b>Warning</b>:  Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in <b>/home/dwtphovu/public_html/intellisource.co.za/test_8347379386/test.php</b> on line <b>5</b><br />Array,%SECOND% - %THIRD a complete nexus regarding consumer quoting on multiple products.%%FOURTH%Love, Light and Life - Namaste.%FIFTH%

from what i have read on PHP.net and what i understand, matches[0] should contain an array of the matches retrieved by the pcre "/%[^%]+%/".ie. $FIRST blah blah%. %SECOND%, and so forth. i am battling to focus here, could someone please assist?basically how would i retrieve an array of matches only, to parse in the function setflags.i have looked into preg_match_all aswell, but the arrays returned are "all over the place" from what i could see. ie multidimentional, with no particular order. i need a single dimentional array of items matched.

[Greywacke]

i'm thinking now, that perhaps i should rather be using preg_replace_callback instead. got some research to do in the meantime... :)edit:it seems i would have to use the function with the switch functionality within the callback function. but i cannot seem to derive how exactly, this would be done.

[Greywacke]

cool ^^this seems to work:

<?phpif (!headers_sent()) header("Content-Type: text/plain",true);function getflags($input) {	foreach ($input as $in) {		// use to split by first space if found, to get flag values		$in = preg_split("/ /",$in,2);		// build and return the values to replace with		switch ($in[0]) {			case "FIRST":				return "Hi ".$in[1];				break;			case "SECOND":				return "Welcome";				break;			case "THIRD":				return "To ".$in[1];				break;			case "FOURTH":				return "Hope you enjoy!";				break;			case "FIFTH":				return "The QuoteMe.ZA.NET Team.";				break;		}	}}function populateflags($str) {	// replace flags used in string (parse entire template contents' as string), populating flags individually and sometimes recursively in callback function.	return preg_replace_callback("/%([^%]+)%/",getflags,$str);}$string = "%FIRST Pierre du Toit%,%SECOND% - %THIRD a complete nexus regarding consumer quoting on multiple products.%%FOURTH%Love, Light and Life - Namaste.%FIFTH%";echo populateflags($string);?>

writing the following:

Hi Pierre du Toit,Welcome - To a complete nexus regarding consumer quoting on multiple products.Hope you enjoy!Love, Light and Life - Namaste.The QuoteMe.ZA.NET Team.

as the first successful test :)now i need to populate from the flag values set in the mysql database, in the callback function 0o.

[Greywacke]

okay,i have now started implementing the function into the global database and utf8 include over the site. the functions look as follows:

function getflags($input) {	// EXAMPLE TO POPULATE WITH REAL FLAGS	foreach ($input as $in) {		// use to split by first space if found, to get flag values		$in = preg_split("/ /",$in,2);		// build and return the values to replace with		switch ($in[0]) {			// attribute flags			case "ATTRIBUTE":				return $GLOBALS["attribsarr"][$in[1]];				break;			// consumer flags			case "CONSUMERNAME":				return $GLOBALS["consumerfullname"];				break;			case "CONSUMEREMAIL":				return $GLOBALS["consumeremail"];				break;			case "CONSUMERCELL":				return $GLOBALS["consumercell"];			case "CONSUMERCITY":				return $GLOBALS["city_town"];				break;			// supplier flags			case "SUPPLIERNAME":				return $GLOBALS["recipient"][1];				break;			case "CONTACTNAME":				return $GLOBALS["recipient"][0];				break;			case "ACCMGR":				return $GLOBALS["recipient"][11];				break;			case "ACCMGRMAIL":				return $GLOBALS["recipient"][12];				break;			case "PAYGBALANCE":				return $GLOBALS["recipient"][3];			case "INVOICEAMOUNT":				return $GLOBALS["recipient"][13];				break;			// lead flags			case "LEADREFERENCE":				return "#".($GLOBALS["leadid"] + 11001000);				break;			case "LEADCATEGORY":				return $GLOBALS["cat"];				break;			case "PAYGCOST":				return $GLOBALS["servicecost"];				break;			case "DUPLICATES":				return $GLOBALS["append"];				break;			// other flags			case "SERVICENAME":				return $GLOBALS["servicename"];				break;			case "REGIONNAME":				return $GLOBALS["regionname"];				break;			// cronjob flags			case "FROMDATE":				return $GLOBALS["f"];				break;			case "TODATE":				return $GLOBALS["t"];				break;			// configurable text flags			case "CONFIGTEXT":				$sql = "SELECT * FROM 18_configurabletexts WHERE 18_configurabletexts.text_TextDescription = \"".$in[1]."\" AND 18_configurabletexts.bigint_ServiceID = ".$GLOBALS["service"].";";				$result = mysql_query_errors($sql, $conn, __FILE__, __LINE__, false);				if ($result) {					if ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {						return $row["text_TextFullContent"];					}				}		}	}}function populateflags($str) {	// replace flags used in string (parse entire template contents' as string), populating flags individually and sometimes recursively in callback function.	while (preg_match("/%([^%]+)%/",$str)) {		$str = preg_replace_callback("/%([^%]+)%/",getflags,$str);	}	return $str;}

now it's to implement the populateflags("%CONFIGTEXT Configurable|Text|Name%") function all over the site, where the attribute specifies the configurable text to call from the database, this is unique to each service. i believe this "ïssue" has now been resolved - yay for the preg functions!