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

Here's a simple class I created to wrap our slightly modified str_replace() functions.

Our php::str_rreplace() function also allows you to carry out a reverse, limited str_replace() which can be very handy when trying to replace only the final X instance(s) of a string.

These examples both use preg_replace().

<?php
class php {

    /**
    * str_replace() from the end of a string that can also be limited e.g. replace only the last instance of '</div>' with ''
    *
    * @param string   $find
    * @param string   $replace
    * @param string   $subject
    * @param int      $replacement_limit | -1 to replace all references
    *
    * @return string
    */
    public static function str_replace($find, $replace, $subject, $replacement_limit = -1) {
        $find_pattern = str_replace('/', '\/', $find);
        return preg_replace('/' . $find_pattern . '/', $replace, $subject, $replacement_limit);
    }

    /**
    * str_replace() from the end of a string that can also be limited e.g. replace only the last instance of '</div>' with ''
    *
    * @param string   $find
    * @param string   $replace
    * @param string   $subject
    * @param int      $replacement_limit | -1 to replace all references
    *
    * @return string
    */
    public static function str_rreplace($find, $replace, $subject, $replacement_limit = -1) {
        return strrev( self::str_replace(strrev($find), strrev($replace), strrev($subject), $replacement_limit) );
    }
}

Answer 2

function str_replace_once($search, $replace, $subject) {
    $pos = strpos($subject, $search);
    if ($pos === false) {
        return $subject;
    }

    return substr($subject, 0, $pos) . $replace . substr($subject, $pos + strlen($search));
}

Answer 3

$string = 'this is my world, not my world';
$find = 'world';
$replace = 'farm';
$result = preg_replace("/$find/",$replace,$string,1);
echo $result;

Answer 4

According to my test result, I'd like to vote the regular_express one provided by karim79. (I don't have enough reputation to vote it now!)

The solution from zombat uses too many function calls, I even simplify the codes. I'm using PHP 5.4 to run both solutions for 100,000 times, and here's the result:

$str = 'Hello abc, have a nice day abc! abc!';
$pos = strpos($str, 'abc');
$str = substr_replace($str, '123', $pos, 3);

==> 1.85 sec

$str = 'Hello abc, have a nice day abc! abc!';
$str = preg_replace('/abc/', '123', $str, 1);

==> 1.35 sec

As you can see. The performance of preg_replace is not so bad as many people think. So I'd suggest the classy solution if your regular express is not complicated.