Posted by Duncan Hill on 04/06/05 14:23

I have a snippet of code that looks something like:
if (is_array($p_sub_values)) {
foreach ($p_sub_values as $i => $v) {
$p_sub_values_str[$i] = "'$v'";
}
$s = join(',', $p_sub_values_str);
$r = htmlentities(sprintf($tmp[0], $s, ENT_QUOTES);
}

$tmp[0] in this case contains a string like 'Fred likes %1$s on his %2$s',
taking advantage of positional substitution with sprintf.

The function call to this snippet can have an optional array passed. My
need/desire is to substitute each element of the array into the appropriate
position with sprintf. So far I've tried:
$r = htmlentities(sprintf($tmp[0], $s, ENT_QUOTES);
$r = htmlentities(sprintf($tmp[0], ${$s}, ENT_QUOTES);

and a few other bits and pieces, all to no avail (error is about not enough
arguments).

Is there any way to accomplish this in PHP, or do I need to roll my own
substitution code? The array can obviously be anything from a single value
to 'unlimited' (though in practice will probably be less than 5).

--
My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely.

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