match whole word only without regex

Question

Since i cant use preg_match (UTF8 support is somehow broken, it works locally but breaks at production) i want to find another way to match word against blacklist. Problem is, i

Answer 1

If you want to mimic the \b modifier of regex you can try something like this:

$offset = 0;
$word = 'badword';
$matched = array();
while(($pos = strpos($string, $word, $offset)) !== false) {
    $leftBoundary = false;
    // If is the first char, it has a boundary on the right
    if ($pos === 0) {
       $leftBoundary = true;
    // Else, if it is on the middle of the string, we must check the previous char
    } elseif ($pos > 0 && in_array($string[$pos-1], array(' ', '-',...)) {
        $leftBoundary = true;
    }

    $rightBoundary = false;
    // If is the last char, it has a boundary on the right
    if ($pos === (strlen($string) - 1)) {
       $rightBoundary = true;
    // Else, if it is on the middle of the string, we must check the next char
    } elseif ($pos < (strlen($string) - 1) && in_array($string[$pos+1], array(' ', '-',...)) {
        $rightBoundary = true;
    }

    // If it has both boundaries, we add the index to the matched ones...
    if ($leftBoundary && $rightBoundary) {
        $matched[] = $pos;
    }

    $offset = $pos + strlen($word);
}