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

I'm not sure whether it will work or not, but I'd try to put some extra spaces like this:

function emoticons($text) {
    $icons = array(
            ' :) '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="smile" class="icon_smile" /> ',
            ' :-) '   =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="smile" class="icon_smile" /> ',
            ' :D '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="smile" class="icon_laugh" /> ',
            ' :d '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="laugh" class="icon_laugh" /> ',
            ' ;) '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="wink" class="icon_wink" /> ',
            ' :P '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="tounge" class="icon_tounge" /> ',
            ' :-P '   =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="tounge" class="icon_tounge" /> ',
            ' :-p '   =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="tounge" class="icon_tounge" /> ',
            ' :p '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="tounge" class="icon_tounge" /> ',
            ' :( '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="sad face" class="icon_sad" /> ',
            ' :o '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="shock" class="icon_shock" /> ',
            ' :O '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="shock" class="icon_shock" /> ',
            ' :0 '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="shock" class="icon_shack" /> ',
            ' :| '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="straight face" class="icon_straight" /> ',
            ' :-| '   =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="straight face" class="icon_straight" /> ',
            ' :/ '    =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="straight face" class="icon_straight" /> ',
            ' :-/ '   =>  ' <img src="/images/blank.gif" alt="straight face" class="icon_straight" /> '
    );
    return strtr($text, $icons);
}

Answer 2

I think using regular expressions instead of just defining your emoticons. This could look like

// replaces a :) when it is surrounded by whitespaces
return preg_replace('/\s:)\s/', '<img ...>', $text);

Answer 3

Regular expressions are slow for this if the text is big, as much as i like them, you should only insert an icon if it's surrounded by spaces, that way your users won't riot when trying to write urls.

Answer 4

I'd recommend two libraries:

Emojify: https://github.com/HallgrenNetworks/emojify

PHP Emoji: https://github.com/iamcal/php-emoji

These will deal with these cases for you.

Answer 5

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.