PHP string replace match whole word

Question

Hello, I would like to make a whole word replace using php Example : If I have

$text = "Hello hellol hello, Helloz";

and I use

$newtext = str_replace("Hello",'NEW',$text);

The new text should look like

NEW hello1 hello, Helloz

PHP returns

NEW hello1 hello, NEWz

Thanks.

Answer 1

preg_replace('/hello\b/i','NEW',$_text)

Answer 2

You want to use regular expressions. The \b matches a word boundary.

$text = preg_replace('/\bHello\b/', 'NEW', $text);

---

If $text contains UTF-8 text, you'll have to add the Unicode modifier "u", so that non-latin characters are not misinterpreted as word boundaries:

$text = preg_replace('/\bHello\b/u', 'NEW', $text);

Answer 3

Hi,

FYI: I tried this preg_replace. Its not working as expected in UTF-8 characters.