Write a PHP script, which changes the color of the first character of a word

By Shahnail Khan Last updated : December 19, 2023

Problem statement

Write a PHP script, which changes the color of the first character of a word.

Sample string: Hello! Welcome to Includehelp.
Expected Output:
Hello! Welcome to Includehelp.

Prerequisites

To understand this solution better, you should have the basic knowledge of the following PHP topics:

Changing the color of the first character of a word in PHP

To change the color of the first character of a word in a string using PHP script, we use the preg_replace() function.

In PHP, the preg_replace() function is used for performing regular expression-based search and replacing a string. It allows you to search for a pattern in a given string and replace it with another specified value.

Syntax of preg_replace():

preg_replace( $pattern, $replacement, $subject, $limit, $count )

$pattern: This is the regular expression pattern you want to search for in the $subject string.
$replacement: The value that will replace the matched pattern in the $subject string.
$subject: The original string where the search and replace will occur.
$limit: (Optional) The maximum number of replacements to perform. Use -1 for no limit.
$count: (Optional) If provided, this variable will be filled with the number of replacements done.

PHP script to change the color of the first character of a word

The code given below is used for changing the color of the first character of a word in PHP.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Change Color of First Character</title>
</head>
<body>

<?php
function changeColor($inputString, $color)
{
    // Use a regular expression to match the first character of each word
    $pattern = "/\b(\w)/u";
    $replacement = "<span style='color: $color;'>$1</span>";
    $modifiedString = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $inputString);

    return $modifiedString;
}

$inputString = "Hello! Welcome to Includehelp.";
$modifiedString = changeColor($inputString, "blue");

echo "<p>$modifiedString</p>";
?>

</body>
</html>

Output

The output of the given code is:

Code Explanation

The changeColor() function takes two parameters: $inputString (the original string) and $color (the color to be applied).
Inside the function, a regular expression pattern (/\b(\w)/u) is used to match the first character of each word.
$replacement is a string containing an HTML <span> element with an inline style to set the color. $1 in the replacement refers to the matched character.
preg_replace is then used to replace the matched characters with the specified HTML code, resulting in a modified string.
$inputString is defined: "Hello! Welcome to Includehelp."
The changeColor function is called with this string and a specified color ('blue').
Then the original string with the first character of each word is now colored in blue.

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