Search and replace all php_short_tag that is <?= and <? [closed]

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I did not want the hasle of turning on php_short_tag in php.ini and also i wanted to use xml without issues which short tags could introduce, so instead i replaced every occurance of a short tag in the code by using search and replace.

I thought i should share it here since i found many answers that did not work until i tweaked them

1. First search and replace <?= with <?php NOTE: make sure <?php has a space after it so that <?=code will be <?php code and not <?phpcode .

2. The regex for that is <[?][\\=](?!php) , check it out at debuggex.com

3. Then search and replace <? with <?php NOTE: make sure <?php has a space after it so that <?code will be <?php code and not <?phpcode .

4. The regex for that is <[?](?!php) , check it out at debuggex.com

Answer 1

Just make the = symbol as optional one.

preg_replace('~<\?=?(?!php\b)~', '<?php ', $str);

OR

preg_replace('~<\?=?(?!php\b)(\w)~', '<?php \1', $str);

DEMO

Answer 2

Just a heads up the <?= symbol mimics the echo function so i had to udo my change eg:

<?= __("Key") ?> was changed to <?php __("Key") ?>

This did not output the language so i undid this byt the regex:

(?<=php)\\ (?=__[(]) <?php __("Key") ?> became this <?php echo __("Key") ?>