You can "reuse" the numbers from the search strings using capturing groups, denoted by brackets ()
.
Try this -
$text = "a#2 a#3 a#5 a#2 t#34 t#34 t#33 t#36";
$search = array('/\ba#(\d+)\b/', '/\bt#(\d+)\b/');
$replace = array('/actions/view/$1', '/tasks/view/$1');
$text = preg_replace($search, $replace, $text);
var_dump($text);
/**
OUTPUT-
string '/actions/view/2 /actions/view/3 /actions/view/5 /actions/view/2 /tasks/view/34 /tasks/view/34 /tasks/view/33 /tasks/view/36' (length=123)
**/
The above answer works, but if you need to add more of those search values, you can store those keys in separate array and you can use preg_replace_callback
.
This also does the same thing, but now, you only need to add more (alphabets)keys in the array and it will replace it accordingly.
Try something like this-
$arr = Array(
"a"=> "/actions/view/",
"t"=> "/tasks/view/"
);
$text = preg_replace_callback("/\b([a-z]+)#(\d+)\b/", function($matches) use($arr){
var_dump($matches);
return $arr[$matches[1]].$matches[2];
},$text);
var_dump($text);
/**
OUTPUT-
string '/actions/view/2 /actions/view/3 /actions/view/5 /actions/view/2 /tasks/view/34 /tasks/view/34 /tasks/view/33 /tasks/view/36' (length=123)
**/