I generated the following regex code with http://gskinner.com/RegExr/ where it works, but when I execute it with PHP, it fails to use the match in the replacement string.
preg_replace(
'/(?<=\>)\b\w*\b|^\w*\b/',
'<b>$&</b>',
'an example'
);
Output:
<b>$&</b> example
Expected:
<b>an</b> example
I know that obviously the $&
is not doing the correct thing, but how can I get it to work?
Try with this instead
preg_replace('/(?<=\>)\b\w*\b|^\w*\b/', '<b>$0</b>', $string);
$0 means it will become the first thing matched in your regex, $1 will become the second etc.
You could also use back-references; \0 gets the first thing matched back from where you are, \1 gets the second thing matched back etc. More Info