用正则表达式求反

Question

Trying to negate   string but nothing seems to work..

Heres what im trying to do:

Input:

example: word1 word2 

Output that i want:

example: **** word2

Current code:

preg_replace('/example: (\s|.nbsp;)?[^<\n\r (&nbsp;)]*', 'example: ****', $sContent);

From what i understand, [^<\\n\\r (&nbsp;)] needs to change. Currently it takes every symbol from   separately, i want it to take the whole string. How can i do that?

Answer 1

You can simply use .*? to match everything before the   and use capture groups to put back everything else:

preg_replace('/(example: ).*?( )/', '$1****$2', $sContent);

regex101 demo

Or you can use lookarounds to avoid capture groups...

preg_replace('/(?<=example: ).*?(?=&nbsp;)/', '****', $sContent);

regex101 demo