A better way to replace emoticons in PHP?

Question

Right now I am using this function for emoticons:

function emoticons($text) {
        $icons = array(
                \':)\'    =>  \'

        

Answer 1

You can use the preg_replace function and then use word boundaries in the regular expression.

 foreach($icons as $icon=>$image) {
      $icon = preg_quote($icon);
      $text = preg_replace("~\b$icon\b~",$image,$text);
 }

You need to use word boundaries and not white space because this will take care of the start and end points to. Needing a space before means that just a :) won't be found.