Using str_replace so that it only acts on the first match?

Question

I want a version of str_replace() that only replaces the first occurrence of $search in the $subject. Is there an easy solution to thi

Answer 1

You can use this:

function str_replace_once($str_pattern, $str_replacement, $string){ 

        if (strpos($string, $str_pattern) !== false){ 
            $occurrence = strpos($string, $str_pattern); 
            return substr_replace($string, $str_replacement, strpos($string, $str_pattern), strlen($str_pattern)); 
        } 

        return $string; 
    } 

Found this example from php.net

Usage:

$string = "Thiz iz an examplz";
var_dump(str_replace_once('z','Z', $string)); 

Output:

ThiZ iz an examplz

This may reduce the performance a little bit, but the easiest solution.