Remove ;; in string

November 24, 2021

I have string

;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;;Called by the Grave);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;;Called by the Grave;;Secrets of Dark Magic)

I want to remove ;; in here {card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;;Called by the Grave) ( not ;; outside)

Result I want

   ;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;Called by the Grave);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;Called by the Grave;Secrets of Dark Magic)

I tried code below but it remove all ;; in string!

$search = ';;';
$string = preg_replace("/($search)/", ";", $string);

>Solution :

We can use preg_replace_callback here to target all text occurring within parentheses (...). Then, on each match, do a simple string replacement from ;; to single ;.

$input = ";{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;;Called by the Grave);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;;Called by the Grave;;Secrets of Dark Magic)";
$output = preg_replace_callback("/\(.*?\)/", function($matches) {
    return str_replace(";;", ";", $matches[0]);
}, $input);
echo $input;
echo "\n";
echo $output;

This prints:

;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;;Called by the Grave);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;;Called by the Grave;;Secrets of Dark Magic)

;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;Called by the Grave);;{card}(Secrets of Dark Magic;Called by the Grave;Secrets of Dark Magic)