php str_ireplace without losing case

Question

is it possible to run str_ireplace without it destroying the original casing?

For instance:

$txt = \"Hello How Are You\";
$a = \"are\";
$h = \"hello\         


        

Answer 1

You're probably looking for this:

$txt = preg_replace("#\\b($a|$h)\\b#i", 
  "$1", $txt);

... or, if you want to highlight the whole array of words (being able to use metacharacters as well):

$txt = 'Hi! How are you doing? Have some stars: * * *!';
$array_of_words = array('Hi!', 'stars', '*');

$pattern = '#(?<=^|\W)(' 
       . implode('|', array_map('preg_quote', $array_of_words))
       . ')(?=$|\W)#i';

echo preg_replace($pattern, 
      "$1", $txt);