Change part of text from mysql into variable name using php

Question

Totally lost on how to solve. I have a mysql text record which contains the following text:

Hello $someone

When I output it in php, it shows as Hello $someone - which is fine and what I expect.

However, how can I output it in php so that it turns $someone into a php variable, which is assigned in php?... So I'd like my php code like:

$someone = "John Doe";
echo $subject;

returns: Hello John Doe

I've tried looking at variable variables, using $$someone, ${$someone} but always just returns text.

I understand that $someone would always be a text, so would have to have it stored in mysql as something like {$someone} to differentiate it from a dollar amount like $50 etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

It is a terrible practice to store variable names in database. What will happen when someone changes the variable name in the application ? If you want to store messages that will be dynamically changed by the application, use placeholders. Store the message as Hello <placeholder> and then replace the <placeholder> part of the message with the value of the $someone variable. — Dimitar Spasovski
– Dimitar Spasovski, Commented Jul 1, 2018 at 10:42
I did consider that, however it's only me using the app. If anyone else were to use it though, I'd limit it to only allow certain variables... — The Big W
– The Big W, Commented Jul 1, 2018 at 10:50
Well it does not matter how many people are going to use the app. What if you decide to do a refactor a few months from now ? You will have to make database migrations in order to update the names of the changed variables. — Dimitar Spasovski
– Dimitar Spasovski, Commented Jul 1, 2018 at 10:57
You could write a fairly simple function that would substitute placeholders with text in an array. Rather than using a $var syntax, I would suggest using something like {var}. This uses characters that rarely are used, and provides at starting and ending reference for the variable to be substituted. I'll add an answer with a function like that... — Sloan Thrasher
– Sloan Thrasher, Commented Jul 1, 2018 at 11:08

Sloan Thrasher · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-01 16:08:32Z

Here's an exampe of a simple function that will replace placeholder values in a string. Both the strings ($text) and the data could easily come from the database.

$text = "";
$text .= "<p>Dear {name},</p>\n";
$text .= "<p>Thank you for your order on {order_date}.</p>\n";
$text .= "<p>You order was shipped on {ship_date}.</p>\n";

$data = array(
    "name" => "John Doe",
    "order_date" => "05/01/2018",
    "ship_date" => "05/04/2018",
    "order_total" => "$22.50"
);

$textToDisplay = curly_replacer($text,$data);
echo $textToDisplay;

//  Function to replace placeholders with data values.
//  $str contains placeholder names enclosed in { }
//  $data is an associative array whose keys are placeholder, 
//  and values are the values to replace the placeholders
function curly_replacer($str,$data) {
    $rslt = $str;
    foreach($data as $key => $val) {
        $rslt = str_replace("{".$key."}", $val, $rslt);
    }
    return $rslt;
}

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