删除之间的文字 <a></a> 但不是href或 <span></span> 使用PHP

Question

Trying to remove text from between </span> and </a> . I want to just remove the some text here just after the </span> so that it only shows the icon.

$bad_string = '<li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span>some text here</a></li>';

$good_string = '<li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span></a></li>';

What currently echoes:

<ul id="menu-social-menu-1" class="menu">
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span>some text here</a></li>
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span>some text here</a></li>
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span>some text here</a></li>
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span>some text here</a></li>
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span>some text here</a></li>
</ul>

What should echo:

<ul id="menu-social-menu-1" class="menu">
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span></a></li>
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span></a></li>
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span></a></li>
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span></a></li>
    <li class="someclasses"><a target="_blank" href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span></a></li>
</ul>

Using this below code in WordPress the text after the span is still present. It won't strip out the text after the </span> . What's my mistake? here:

<?php if ( has_nav_menu( 'social-menu' ) ) {
    $menu = wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'social-menu', 'fallback_cb' => '', 'echo' => false ) );

    function convertURL($menu) {
        return preg_replace("/<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"([^\"]+?)\"><span><\/span>.*?<\/a>/", "<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"$1\"><span></span></a>", $menu);
    }

    echo $menu;
    }
?>

Answer 1

Why don't you just solve that with a regex?

function convertURL($url) {
  return preg_replace("/<a href=\"([^\"]+?)\">.*/", "<a href=\"$1\"><span></span></a>", $url);
}
// input:  <a href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span>some text here</a>
// output: <a href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span></a>

EDIT:
test.php:

<?php
function convertURL($url) {
  return preg_replace("/<a href=\"([^\"]+?)\">.*/", "<a href=\"$1\"><span></span></a>", $url);
}

foreach(['<a href="http://linkedin.com/some/vanity"><span></span>some text here</a>', '<a href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span>some text here</a>'] as $url) {
  echo "$url => ";
  echo convertURL($url)."\n";
}

php test.php:

$ php /tmp/test.php
<a href="http://linkedin.com/some/vanity"><span></span>some text here</a> => <a href="http://linkedin.com/some/vanity"><span></span></a>
<a href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span>some text here</a> => <a href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span></span></a>

Answer 2

Obligatory https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/2191572 but this should work.

If I may re-word your requirements then you want to remove stuff in between </span> and </a>

$bad_string = '<a href="http:www.example.com/dir/handle"><span>social icon</span>some text here</a>';

$parts = explode('</span>', $bad_string); // explode on </span> and save the array
array_pop($parts); // remove last element of array which should be "some text here</a>"
$parts[] = '</a>'; // re-add the </a>

$good_string = implode('</span>', $parts); // re-join the array on </span>

echo $good_string;