Php convert string to domain

Converting a String to Slug in PHP

In this blog, we will learn how to transform raw strings into clean, human-readable, and SEO-friendly slugs using PHP. This blog explores multiple methods, including using built-in functions like str_replace, iconv, and urlencode.

Introduction:

Creating SEO-friendly URLs is essential to improve search engine rankings and enhance user experience. One common technique to achieve this is by converting strings into «slugs,» which are clean, human-readable, and URL-safe versions of the original text. In this blog, we will explore different methods to convert strings into slugs using PHP.

Method 1: Using PHP’s built-in str_replace function

The str_replace function is a versatile tool that can be employed to remove unwanted characters from the input string and replace them with a predefined separator, typically a hyphen. Here’s a sample PHP code to achieve this:

function string_to_slug_method_1($string) < $string = strtolower(trim($string)); $string = str_replace(' ', '-', $string); $slug = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9-]/', '', $string); return $slug; >

Output:

Input: "Hello, World! How's It Going?" Output: "hello-world-hows-it-going"

• We start by converting the string to lowercase and removing any leading or trailing whitespace.
• Next, we replace spaces with hyphens to ensure the slug is URL-safe.
• Finally, we use a regular expression to remove any characters that are not lowercase letters, numbers, or hyphens.

Method 2: Utilizing iconv and preg_replace functions

In this method, we’ll use iconv to transliterate non-ASCII characters into their closest ASCII counterparts, and then apply preg_replace to remove unwanted characters.

function string_to_slug_method_2($string) < $string = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT', $string); $string = strtolower(trim($string)); $string = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9-]/', '', $string); $slug = preg_replace('/-+/', '-', $string); return $slug; >

Output:

Input: "Café au Lait" Output: "cafe-au-lait"

• The iconv function is used to transliterate non-ASCII characters into their closest ASCII representation. For example, «é» is replaced with «e.»
• We then convert the string to lowercase, remove leading/trailing whitespace, and eliminate unwanted characters using preg_replace .
• Finally, we remove any consecutive hyphens to ensure a clean slug.

Method 3: Incorporating urlencode for special character handling

Using urlencode helps retain special characters in the slug while still keeping it URL-safe.

function string_to_slug_method_3($string)

Output:

Input: "Learn PHP in 1 Hour!" Output: "learn-php-in-1-hour%21"

• We convert the string to lowercase and replace spaces with hyphens as before.
• However, instead of using regular expressions to remove special characters, we apply urlencode to encode them in a URL-safe format.

Conclusion

In this blog, we explored multiple methods to convert strings into SEO-friendly slugs in PHP. We started with a basic approach using str_replace and preg_replace functions to eliminate unwanted characters and ensure URL safety. We then leveraged iconv for transliteration and urlencode to handle special characters better.

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Extract domain, path etc from a full url with PHP

PHP’s parse_url function makes it easy to extract the domain, path and other useful bits of information from a full URL. This can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as when spidering content from a website and needing to extract particular pieces of information from the links in the page.

Returning an associative array

The parse_url function takes the url as the first argument and an optional component value as the second argument. If the second argument is omitted then it returns the found values as an associative array.

This post is at https://www.electrictoolbox.com/php-extract-domain-from-full-url/ and getting the associative array of information from it is done like this:

$url = "https://www.electrictoolbox.com/php-extract-domain-from-full-url/"; $parts = parse_url($url);

Then doing print_r($parts) will output this:

Array ( [scheme] => http [host] => www.electrictoolbox.com [path] => /php-extract-domain-from-full-url/ )

If they are present, the array will also contain values for port, user, pass (i.e. password), query (the query string component of the URL) and fragment (the part after the #).

Returning a string

If all you are after is a single component from the array as a single string, pass the second «component» parameter from the following constants: PHP_URL_SCHEME, PHP_URL_HOST, PHP_URL_PORT, PHP_URL_USER, PHP_URL_PASS, PHP_URL_PATH, PHP_URL_QUERY or PHP_URL_FRAGMENT.

To just get the domain from this blog post’s URL, do this:

$url = "https://www.electrictoolbox.com/php-extract-domain-from-full-url/"; $domain = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_HOST);

PHP Documentation

For more information read the PHP manual page for this function.

Follow up posts

Have a read of my post titled «PHP: get keywords from search engine referer url» to find out how to use the parse_url function in conjunction with the parse_str function to see what query string visitors have entered into a search engine.

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Convert String to URL-Friendly in PHP

In this blog, we will learn how to convert strings into URL-friendly formats in PHP. Discover multiple methods, from basic built-in functions like urlencode() and str_replace() to more advanced techniques using regular expressions. Additionally, explore the benefits of external libraries like «URL Slug» for handling complex scenarios with multilingual content and special character sets.

Introduction:

URLs are essential components of web applications, enabling users to access specific resources and content on the internet. However, URLs may contain special characters or spaces that can cause issues when used in web addresses. To overcome this problem, developers often convert strings into URL-friendly formats to ensure proper functionality and search engine optimization. In this blog, we will explore various methods to convert strings to URL-friendly format in PHP, along with their respective advantages and use cases.

Method 1: Using urlencode() function

The most straightforward way to convert a string to a URL-friendly format is by using the urlencode() function in PHP. This built-in function takes a string as input and replaces all non-alphanumeric characters (except for -_.) with their corresponding percent-encoded representations. This ensures that the resulting string can be safely used in a URL.

$originalString = "Hello World!"; $urlFriendlyString = urlencode($originalString); echo $urlFriendlyString; 

Output:

In the example above, the urlencode() function replaces the space (» «) with «%20» and the exclamation mark («!») with «%21» to make the string URL-friendly.

Method 2: Using str_replace() and strtolower() functions

Another approach to create URL-friendly strings is by using the combination of str_replace() and strtolower() functions. The str_replace() function replaces all spaces with a specified character, typically «-«, and the strtolower() function converts the string to lowercase.

$originalString = "Hello World!"; $urlFriendlyString = str_replace(' ', '-', strtolower($originalString)); echo $urlFriendlyString; 

Output:

In the above example, the str_replace() function replaces the space (» «) with a hyphen («-«) and strtolower() converts the entire string to lowercase.

Method 3: Using Regular Expressions

Regular expressions offer a powerful way to manipulate strings and convert them to URL-friendly formats. We can use the preg_replace() function with a regular expression pattern to achieve this.

$originalString = "I love PHP!"; $urlFriendlyString = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9]+/', '-', strtolower($originalString)); echo $urlFriendlyString; 

Output:

In this example, the regular expression pattern /[^a-zA-Z0-9]+/ matches any character that is not an alphanumeric (a-z, A-Z, or 0-9) and replaces it with a hyphen («-«).

Method 4: Utilizing the URL Slug Package

For more complex scenarios, where we need to handle multilingual content or advanced character sets, it is beneficial to use external libraries. One such library is the «URL Slug» package available via Composer.

First, install the package using Composer:

composer require cviebrock/url-slug 

Then, use it in your PHP code:

require_once 'vendor/autoload.php'; use Cocur\Slugify\Slugify; $originalString = "Let's use URL Slug package!"; $slugify = new Slugify(); $urlFriendlyString = $slugify->slugify($originalString); echo $urlFriendlyString; 

Output:

The «URL Slug» package handles more complex cases by converting characters like accented letters, symbols, and special characters into their URL-friendly equivalents.

Conclusion:

In this blog, we have explored various methods to convert strings into URL-friendly formats in PHP. The urlencode() function is simple and effective for basic use cases, while str_replace() and strtolower() provide a straightforward approach for simple replacements and lowercase conversion. Regular expressions offer greater flexibility for handling complex situations. Additionally, we’ve highlighted the benefit of using external libraries like the «URL Slug» package for multilingual and advanced character set scenarios.

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