How to use ' in a single quoted string?

Question

I use the following for a preg_replace:

$replace = '/[!\/."",#\s\-:?"]+/';

For example when I try and add ' above it gives me an error on the file:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_NS_SEPARATOR in .../s.php on line 38

Additionally, is there an easier way to list all of the symbols to be replaced?

Answer 1

If you want to get rid of any symbol, try:

$replace = "/[^a-zA-Z0-9 ]/";

The ^ indicates "anything but the following". Add whatever characters you want to allow to the list. It's easier than listing every symbol and having to deal with escaping.

Answer 2

You need to escape the ' character as it's also the delimiter of the single quoted string:

$replace = '/[!\/.,#\s\-:?"\']+/';
                           ^^

Escaping is done by adding \ in front of it. This is normally logical as you otherwise would have finished the string definition which then leads to a syntax error (PHP is not able to parse your code). See Single quoted String^­Docs.

Is there an easier way to list all of the symbols to be replaced?

Isn't it easy enough to just list them (as you already do)? So I must admit it's not clear to me what you're actually concerned about so I can't offer something more easy.