PHP str_replace() not working as expected

Question

I got this code here:

<?php 
include_once("php_includes/loginLinks.php");
str_replace("member_profile","php_includes/member_profile",$loginLinks);
str_replace("member_account","php_includes/member_account",$loginLinks);
str_replace("logout","php_includes/logout",$loginLinks);
str_replace("register_form","php_includes/register_form",$loginLinks);
str_replace("login","php_includes/login",$loginLinks);
echo $loginLinks;
?>

it's supposed to change the root folder of links, I'm pretty sure there is some logic mistake in there.

The question: How to change the links directories of newly echo'ed links directories to another directory, or is it another way to change it(I'm pretty new in PHP so not really good at it)?

Answer 1

You must update the variable with the results of the str_replace operation like this:

<?php 
include_once("php_includes/loginLinks.php");
$loginLinks = str_replace("member_profile","php_includes/member_profile",$loginLinks);
$loginLinks = str_replace("member_account","php_includes/member_account",$loginLinks);
$loginLinks = str_replace("logout","php_includes/logout",$loginLinks);
$loginLinks = str_replace("register_form","php_includes/register_form",$loginLinks);
$loginLinks = str_replace("login","php_includes/login",$loginLinks);
echo $loginLinks;
?>

str_replace doesn't modify the original variable, but returns a new value. Here I update $loginLinks with the updated value.

Answer 2

Your mistake is you didn't assign the replacement into the $loginLinks. But instead of str_replace() use of preg_replace() will be much better for your need I believe.

$loginLinks = preg_replace(
    "/(member_profile|member_account|logout|login|register_form)/",
    "php_includes/$1",
    $loginLinks
);