.\"replace all instances of a string within a string .DT replace_string $MUDNAME$ driver help replace_string .SH Name .SI 5 replace_string() - replace all instances of a string within a string .EI .SH Synopsis .SI 5 string replace_string( string str, string pattern, string replace ); string replace_string( string str, string pattern, string replace, int max ); string replace_string( string str, string pattern, string replace, int first, int last ); .EI .SH Description .SP 5 5 replace_string() returns `str' with all instances of `pattern' replaced with `replace'. If `pattern' has zero length then `str' is returned unmodified. If the resultant string would exceed the maximum string length then replace_string() returns an undefinedp(), non-stringp() value. replace_string() can be used to remove characters from a string by specifying a pattern and a zero-length replace parameter. For example, replace_string(" 1 2 3 ", " ", "") would return "123". replace_string() executes faster this way then explode()/implode(). The 4th and 5th arguments are optional (to retain backward compatibility.) The extra arguments have the following effect: With 4 args: The 4th argument specifies the maximum number of replacements to make (the count starts at 1). A value of 0 implies 'replace all', and thus, acts as replace_string() with 3 arguments would. E.g., replace_string("xyxx", "x", "z", 2) would return "zyzx". With 5 args: The 4th and 5th arguments specify the range of matches to replace between, with the following constraints: .EP .SO 10 40 20 first < 1 change all from the start. last == 0, or last > max_matches change all to end first > last return the unmodified array. .EO .SP 5 5 E.g., replace_string("xyxxy", "x", "z", 2, 3) returns "xyzzy". .EP .SH See also .SI 5 sscanf(), explode(), strsrch() .EI