Latest web development tutorials
 

PHP str_ireplace() Function

< PHP String Reference

Example

Replace the characters "WORLD" (case-insensitive) in the string "Hello world!" with "Peter":

<?php
echo str_ireplace("WORLD","Peter","Hello world!");
?>
Run example »

Definition and Usage

The str_ireplace() function replaces some characters with some other characters in a string.

This function works by the following rules:

  • If the string to be searched is an array, it returns an array
  • If the string to be searched is an array, find and replace is performed with every array element
  • If both find and replace are arrays, and replace has fewer elements than find, an empty string will be used as replace
  • If find is an array and replace is a string, the replace string will be used for every find value

Note: This function is case-insensitive. Use the str_replace() function to perform a case-sensitive search.

Note: This function is binary-safe.


Syntax

str_ireplace(find,replace,string,count)

Parameter Description
find Required. Specifies the value to find
replace Required. Specifies the value to replace the value in find
string Required. Specifies the string to be searched
count Optional. A variable that counts the number of replacements

Technical Details

Return Value: Returns a string or an array with the replaced values
PHP Version: 5+
Changelog: The count parameter was added in PHP 5.0

More Examples

Example 1

Using str_ireplace() with an array and a count variable:

<?php
$arr = array("blue","red","green","yellow");
print_r(str_ireplace("RED","pink",$arr,$i)); // This function is case-insensitive
echo "Replacements: $i";
?>
Run example »

Example 2

Using str_ireplace() with less elements in replace than find:

<?php
$find = array("HELLO","WORLD");
$replace = array("B");
$arr = array("Hello","world","!");
print_r(str_ireplace($find,$replace,$arr));
?>
Run example »

< PHP String Reference