PHP: Replace Double Quotes in String But Not Those Within HTML Tag

Question

Looking for the best solution on how to replace regular quotes within a block of text with curly quotes, but not to change quotes found within html tag markers <....> I have attempted using preg-replace, such as:

$pattern = '/(?<!=)"\b/';
$lyrics = preg_replace($pattern, "\u201c", $lyrics);
$pattern = '/\b"(?!>)/';
$lyrics = preg_replace($pattern, "\u201d", $lyrics);
$pattern = '/\."/'; // find regular quotes after a period
$lyrics = preg_replace($pattern, ".\u201d", $lyrics);
$pattern = '/\!"/'; // find regular quotes after an exclamation
$lyrics = preg_replace($pattern, "!\u201d", $lyrics);
$pattern = '/"\s/'; // find regular quotes before a space
$lyrics = preg_replace($pattern, "\u201d ", $lyrics);

For example, if I have the following:

<a href="http://somelink.com">"This is a quotation."

I want it to end up as:

<a href="http://somelink.com">“This is a quotation.”

Answer 1

Use a HTML parser which allows you to access text nodes easily. A regular expression is not really suitable for your needs.

Answer 2

If it's properly formed, you could even use an xml parser. But you'd need all tags opened and closed first (or some in this way: < /br> ). Then, you can parse the xhtml with php as regular xml.

EDITED: Possible duplicate of Highlight text, except html tags