How to replace a nth occurrence in a string

Question

I need a simple and fast solution to replace nth occurrence (placeholder) in a string.

For example, nth question mark in sql query should be replaced with a provide

Answer 1

Instead of using question marks, why don't use markers like that :

$subject = "SELECT uid FROM users WHERE uid = :uid or username = :username";
$parameters = array(
    ':uid' => 42,
    ':username' => 'John',
);
$subject = str_replace(array_keys($parameters), $parameters, $subject);

Answer 2

Here is the function you asked for:

$subject = "SELECT uid FROM users WHERE uid = ? or username = ?";

function str_replace_nth($search, $replace, $subject, $nth)
{
    $found = preg_match_all('/'.preg_quote($search).'/', $subject, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE);
    if (false !== $found && $found > $nth) {
        return substr_replace($subject, $replace, $matches[0][$nth][1], strlen($search));
    }
    return $subject;
}

echo str_replace_nth('?', 'username', $subject, 1);

Note: $nth is a zero based index!

But I'll recommend to use something like the following to replace the placeholders:

$subject = "SELECT uid FROM users WHERE uid = ? or username = ?";

$args = array('1', 'steve');
echo vsprintf(str_replace('?', '%s', $subject), $args);

Answer 3

None of your solutions worked for me, so I made this:

$sql1 = "SELECT * FROM allegro_user WHERE User_Emp_Nb = ? AND User_Activ_status = ?";
$sql2 = "SELECT * FROM allegro_user WHERE User_Emp_Nb = :emp_nb AND User_Activ_status = :activ";

function prepare_query($sql, $args) {
    foreach ($args as $key => $value) {
        if (is_numeric($key)) {
            $sql = preg_replace('/\?/', "'" . $value . "'", $sql, 1);
        } else {
            $sql = str_replace($key, "'" . $value . "'", $sql);
        }
    }
    return $sql;

}

tab($sql1);
$sql = prepare_query($sql1, array('0216313', 'A'));
tab($sql1);

tab($sql2);
$sql = prepare_query($sql2, array(':emp_nb' => '0216313', ':activ' => 'A'));
tab($sql2);

tab() is just a function I use for printing :

echo '<pre>';
print_r($tab);
echo '</pre>';

Answer 4

Validation on input parameter not done

 function str_replace_nth($search, $replace, $subject, $nth){
  $match_arr = explode($search,$subject);
  $match_arr = array_filter($match_arr);

   foreach($match_arr as $key=>$val){

      if($key == $nth-1){ // array index start with Zero
        $match_arr[$key] .=  $replace;
      }else{
        $match_arr[$key] .=  '?';
      }

   }
   return implode('',$match_arr);
}