note 47091 added to function.substr

Here are the replacement functions for substr() and strlen() I use when support for html entities is required: <?php function html_strlen($str) { $chars = preg_split('/(&[^;\s]+;)|/', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE); return count($chars); } function html_substr($str, $start, $length = NULL) { if ($length === 0) return ""; //stop wasting our time ;) //check if we can simply use the built-in functions if (strpos($str, '&') === false) { //No entities. Use built-in functions if ($length === NULL) return substr($str, $start); else return substr($str, $start, $length); } // create our array of characters and html entities $chars = preg_split('/(&[^;\s]+;)|/', $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE | PREG_SPLIT_OFFSET_CAPTURE); $html_length = count($chars); // check if we can predict the return value and save some processing time if ( ($html_length === 0) /* input string was empty */ or ($start >= $html_length) /* $start is longer than the input string */ or (isset($length) and ($length <= -$html_length)) /* all characters would be omitted */ ) return ""; //calculate start position if ($start >= 0) { $real_start = $chars[$start][1]; } else { //start'th character from the end of string $start = max($start,-$html_length); $real_start = $chars[$html_length+$start][1]; } if (!isset($length)) // no $length argument passed, return all remaining characters return substr($str, $real_start); else if ($length > 0) { // copy $length chars if ($start+$length >= $html_length) { // return all remaining characters return substr($str, $real_start); } else { //return $length characters return substr($str, $real_start, $chars[max($start,0)+$length][1] - $real_start); } } else { //negative $length. Omit $length characters from end return substr($str, $real_start, $chars[$html_length+$length][1] - $real_start); } } ?> Example: html_substr("&aacute;bla&#54;bla", 1, 4) -> "bla&#54;" If you happen to find any bugs, please let me know. ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.substr.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+47091 Delete -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+47091&report=yes Reason: bad code -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+47091&report=yes&reason=bad+code Reason: spam -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+47091&report=yes&reason=spam Reason: useless example -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+47091&report=yes&reason=useless+example Reason: contains commercial links -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+47091&report=yes&reason=contains+commercial+links Reason: useless note -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+47091&report=yes&reason=useless+note Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+47091&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php