Unordered list in Php/HTML

Question

I am trying to make it so that asterisks in my string denote list elements in an unordered list.

    $first_char = substr($p,0,1);
    if($first_char == '*'){
        $p = '<ul>' . $p . '</li></ul>';
        $p = str_replace('*' , '<li>',$p);
        $p = str_replace('\n' , '</li>',$p);
    }

However, if this makes it so that no asterisks can be used as content in the list elements. Is there any way to change this?

Answer 1

This may not be the best solution but you could always not use * in the string ( $p ). Instead, write every asterisk as its HTML code equivalent, in this case * . When shown in a browser, user sees nice asterisk but str_replace should not see it. Or you could introduce some escaping characters, but that may get a bit complicated.

Answer 2

Regex Replace Solution

<?php

$pattern = '/(?:^|\n)\s*\*[\t ]*([^\n\r]+)/';
$replacement = '<li>${1}</li>';
$count = 0;

$p = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $p, -1, $count);

if ($count > 0) {
    $pattern = '/(<li>.*?(?:<\/li>)(?:\s*<li>.*?(?:<\/li>))*)/';
    $replacement = '<ul>${1}</ul>';

    $p = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $p);
}
?>

Test String

* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, * consec*tetur adipiscing elit
    *Curabitur ullamcorper neque sit amet

 *  Pellente*sque nec quam rhoncus
Suspendisse ut lacinia arcu

* Nullam in vulpu*tate tellus

Output

<ul><li>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, * consec*tetur adipiscing elit</li>
<li>Curabitur ullamcorper neque sit amet</li>
<li>Pellentesque nec quam rhoncus</li></ul>
Suspendisse ut lacinia arcu
<ul><li>Nullam in vulputate tellus</li></ul>

PHP Manual - preg_replace

Answer 3

This is the simple way:

if(substr($p,0,1) == '*'){
    $p = '<ul>' . substr($p,1) . '</ul>;
}