Using str_replace so that it only acts on the first match?

Question

I want a version of str_replace() that only replaces the first occurrence of $search in the $subject. Is there an easy solution to thi

Answer 1

For a string

$string = 'OOO.OOO.OOO.S';
$search = 'OOO';
$replace = 'B';

//replace ONLY FIRST occurance of "OOO" with "B"
    $string = substr_replace($string,$replace,0,strlen($search));
    //$string => B.OOO.OOO.S

//replace ONLY LAST occurance of "OOOO" with "B"
    $string = substr_replace($string,$replace,strrpos($string,$search),strlen($search)) 
    //$string => OOO.OOO.B.S

    //replace ONLY LAST occurance of "OOOO" with "B"
    $string = strrev(implode(strrev($replace),explode(strrev($search),strrev($string),2)))
    //$string => OOO.OOO.B.S

For a single character

$string[strpos($string,$search)] = $replace;


//EXAMPLE

$string = 'O.O.O.O.S';
$search = 'O';
$replace = 'B';

//replace ONLY FIRST occurance of "O" with "B" 
    $string[strpos($string,$search)] = $replace;  
    //$string => B.O.O.O.S

//replace ONLY LAST occurance of "O" with "B" 
    $string[strrpos($string,$search)] = $replace; 
    // $string => B.O.O.B.S