PHP regex - find and replace

Question

I am trying to do this regex match and replace but not able to do it.

Example

<SPAN class="one">first content here</SPAN>
<SPAN class="two">second content here </SPAN>
<SPAN class="three">one; two; three; and more.</span>
<SPAN class="four">more content here.</span>

I want to find each set of the span tags and replace with something like this

Find

<SPAN class="one">first content here</SPAN>

Change to

<one>first content here</one>

same way the the rest of the span tags.

class="one", class="two" and so on are the only key identifier which I use in the regex match expression. So if I find a span tag with these class then I want to do the replace. My main issue is that I am not able to find the occurrence of first closing tag so what it does is it finds from the start to end which is of no use. So far I have been trying to do this using notepad++ but just found that it has its limitations so any php help would be appreciated.

regards

Hi, I forgot to put code tag so the q is messed up. please read it below in the reply post. — geej
– geej, Commented Apr 7, 2010 at 16:18
You know you can edit your post if you see a mistake, you don't need to post the fix as an answer. — Gabe
– Gabe, Commented Apr 7, 2010 at 16:23
I am sorry, I tried to look for that option but couldnt find it. Please let me know and I can delete the answer post and correct the question. — geej
– geej, Commented Apr 7, 2010 at 16:28

Amy B · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-07 18:33:02Z

13

preg_replace('/<span class="(.*?)">(.*?)<\/span>/i', '<$1>$2</$1>', $input);

edited Apr 7, 2010 at 18:33

answered Apr 7, 2010 at 16:22

Amy B

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1 Comment

geej Over a year ago

but there is a typo. should add a ) before the double quotes ends.

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