note 101592 added to function.htmlspecialchars

i searched for a while for a script, that could see the difference between an html tag and just < and > placed in the text, the reason is that i recieve text from a database, wich is inserted by an html form, and contains text and html tags, the text can contain < and >, so does the tags, with htmlspecialchars you can validate your text to XHTML, but you'll also change the tags, like <b> to &lt;b&gt;, so i needed a script that could see the difference between those two... but i couldn't find one so i made my own one, i havent fully tested it, but the parts i tested worked perfect! just for people that were searching for something like this, it may looks big, could be done easier, but it works for me, so im happy. <?php function fixtags($text){ $text = htmlspecialchars($text); $text = preg_replace("/=/", "=\"\"", $text); $text = preg_replace("/&quot;/", "&quot;\"", $text); $tags = "/&lt;(\/|)(\w*)(\ |)(\w*)([\\\=]*)(?|(\")\"&quot;\"|)(?|(.*)?&quot;(\")|)([\ ]?)(\/|)&gt;/i"; $replacement = "<$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8$9$10>"; $text = preg_replace($tags, $replacement, $text); $text = preg_replace("/=\"\"/", "=", $text); return $text; } ?> an example: <?php $string = " this is smaller < than this<br /> this is greater > than this<br /> this is the same = as this<br /> <a href=\"http://www.example.com/example.php?test=test\">This is a link</a><br /> <b>Bold</b> <i>italic</i> etc..."; echo fixtags($string); ?> will echo: this is smaller &lt; than this<br /> this is greater &gt; than this<br /> this is the same = as this<br /> <a href="http://www.example.com/example.php?test=test">This is a link</a><br /> <b>Bold</b> <i>italic</i> etc... I hope its helpfull!! ---- Server IP: 83.137.20.135 Probable Submitter: 83.85.88.164 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.htmlspecialchars.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/101592 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101592/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101592/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101592/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101592/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101592/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101592/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/101592 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/101592 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php