PHP Preg-replace - Identify only dashes, spaces and breaks

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Good morning, I have a string in which there are breaks represented as ----. The number of dash is often different. Sometimes there are 4, sometimes 5, etc.

Something like this:

Lorem ipsum 
<p>------</p>
Lorem Ipsum 
<p>

I would like to write a php preg_replace command to make them all uniform and identical.

This is what I developed, but it doesn't work. Where is the error?

{-code-3}

Moreover there is something more precise rather than {-code-4} to match only spaces and dashes.

EDIT 1: Thanks to the team in the answer section, I correct the function like this:

{-code-5}

This works fine as long as long the text doesn't have a break between the last dash and {-code-6}. How can I identify the dashed, spaces and also capture the {-code-7}?

Example: ----- {-code-7}{-code-6}

Answer

------ Lorem Ipsum

Answer

----|||$search = "/(-)(.*?)(-<\/p>)/"; $replace = "

Answer

---"; $item = preg_replace($search,$replace,$item);|||(.*?)|||$search = "/(-)[\h-]+(<\/p>)/"; $replace = "

Answer

---"; $item = preg_replace($search,$replace,$item);||||||\n|||----- \n

Answer

Solution:

You don't really need the 3 capture groups. You can match zero or more horizontal whitspace chars using {{-code-3}code{-code-3}1} and replace that with the fixed replacement of {{-code-3}code{-code-3}2}

Example, where as in your code there is always a {-code-3} at the start and end:

$item = <<<DATA
Lorem ipsum 
<p>{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}</p>
Lorem Ipsum 
<p>{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}</p>
Lorem Ipsum 
<p>{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}   {-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}{-code-3}</p>
DATA;

$search = "~<p>{-code-3}{{-code-3}code{-code-3}1}{-code-3}</p>~";
$replace = "{{-code-3}code{-code-3}2}";
$item = preg_replace($search, $replace, $item);

echo $item;

Output

Lorem ipsum 
{{-code-3}code{-code-3}2}
Lorem Ipsum 
{{-code-3}code{-code-3}2}
Lorem Ipsum 
{{-code-3}code{-code-3}2}

Answer

---|||-|||$item = <<<DATA Lorem ipsum ------ Lorem Ipsum

Answer

------ Lorem Ipsum --------- ----- DATA; $search = "~-[\h-]*-~"; $replace = "

Answer

---"; $item = preg_replace($search, $replace, $item); echo $item;|||Lorem ipsum

Answer

--- Lorem Ipsum

Answer

--- Lorem Ipsum

Answer

---

Answer

Solution:

You may try finding the pattern and then replace with however many dashes you want, e.g. {-code-2}:

$input = "Lorem ipsum \n<p>------</p>\nLorem Ipsum \n<p>Answer------</p>\nLorem Ipsum\n<p>Answer----</p>";
$output = preg_replace("/<p>\s*-{1,}\s*<\/p>/", "<p>-----</p>", $input);
echo $output;

This prints:

Lorem ipsum 
<p>-----</p>
Lorem Ipsum 
<p>-----</p>
Lorem Ipsum
<p>-----</p>

Answer

------\nLorem Ipsum\n

Answer

----"; $output = preg_replace("/\s*-{1,}\s*<\/p>/", "-----", $input); echo $output;|||Lorem ipsum ----- Lorem Ipsum ----- Lorem Ipsum -----

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