>PHP: highlight_string

add a note User Contributed Notes
highlight_string

thomas et luegger _dot_ de
20-Jul-2006 05:20


Thanks to peter at int8 dot com, your comment saved quite some time.



In my case even short tags didn't work right (PHP 5.0.5).



The following function offers subversion independent highlighting for PHP5. If you want to display code snippets without tags or use css for code formating it might be a usefull starting point. It is intented for small code fragments only and does not handle sources with multiple php blocks correctly.



Beware, the <code> tag is stripped off. 



<?php



  /*



  These classes are used for highlighting, happy css-ing:



  .phpdefault { color:#0000BB; font-weight: bold;}

  .phpkeyword { color:#007700; font-weight: bold;}

  .phpstring  { color:#DD0000; font-weight: normal;}

  .phpcomment { color:#FF8000; font-weight: normal;}



  */



/**

 * Highlights PHP-source snippets with and without php-tags, inserts class definitions on request

 *

 * Strips <code> and <span color:black>, removes empty spans

 *

 * @param string $source Source to highlight

 * @param boolean $classes, true links source elements to classes

 * @return string

 */

function php_highlight($source, $classes = false)

{

  if (version_compare( phpversion(), "5.0.0", "<")) return "PHP 5 required";



  $r1 = $r2 = '##';



  // adds required PHP tags (at least with vers. 5.0.5 this is required)

  if ( strpos($source,' ?>') === false ) // xml is not THAT important ;-)

  {

    $source = "<?php ".$source." ?>";

    $r1 = '#&lt;\?.*?(php)?.*?&nbsp;#s';

    $r2 = '#\?&gt;#s';

  }

  elseif (strpos($source,'<? ') !== false)

  {

    $r1 = '--';

    $source = str_replace('<? ','<?php ',$source);

  }



  $source = highlight_string($source,true);



  if ($r1 =='--') $source = preg_replace('#(&lt;\?.*?)(php)?(.*?&nbsp;)#s','\\1\\3',$source);



  $source = preg_replace (array ( '/.*<code>\s*<span style="color: #000000">/',    //

                                  '#</span>\s*</code>#',                          //  <code><span black>

                                  $r1, $r2,                 // php tags

                                  '/<span[^>]*><\/span>/'   // empty spans

                                ),'',$source);



  if ($classes) $source = str_replace( array('style="color: #0000BB"','style="color: #007700"',

                                         'style="color: #DD0000"','style="color: #FF8000"'),

                                   array('class="phpdefault"','class="phpkeyword"',

                                         'class="phpstring"','class="phpcomment"',),$source);



  return $source;

}



echo '<p>Some tests:</p><p>';

echo php_highlight('<?php $test = new func("Text"); /* regular tags, use classes */ ?>',true),'<br />';

echo 'Inline code: ',php_highlight('<? $test = new func("Text"); /* short tags */ ?>'),

     ' works without or ',php_highlight('define (\'WITH_CLASSES\',\' too\'); /* no tags */',true),'<br />';

echo php_highlight('$test = new func("Text"); /* no tags, no classes */'),'<br />';

echo '</p><p>You are running PHP: '.phpversion().'</p>';



?>



hope it saves someones time, Tom

peter at int8 dot com
19-Apr-2006 04:43


This hasn't been mentioned, but it appears that PHP opening and closing tags are required to be part of the code snippet.

<?php highlight_string("<? \$var = 15; ?>"); ?>

works, while

<?php highlight_string("\$var = 15;"); ?>

does not. This is unforunate for those of use who want to show tiny code snippets, but there you go. Earlier versions of this function did not have this requirement, if I remember correctly.

m dot lebkowski+phpnet at gmail dot com
07-Apr-2006 04:31


stalker, I`m afraid your function has a bug. Whenever a input string will contain a substring: 'color="foo.bar"' it will be replaced by your function, whitch is of course incorrect. Try this:



<?php

function xhtmlHighlightString( $str, $return=false )

{

   $hlt = highlight_string( $str, true );

   $ret = str_replace(

         array( '<font color="', '</font>' ),

         array( '<span style="color: ', '</span>' ),

         $hlt );

   if($return)

         return $ret;

   echo $ret;

   return true;

}



function xhtmlHilightFile( $path, $return = false )

{

        return xhtmlHighlightString( file_get_contents( $path ), $return );

} ?>

stalker at ruun dot de
31-Dec-2005 01:37


to vouksh: I expanded your functions a bit:



<?php

function xhtmlHighlightString($str,$return=false) {

   $hlt = highlight_string(stripslashes($str), true);

   $fon = str_replace(array('<font ', '</font>'), array('<span ', '</span>'), $hlt);

   $ret = preg_replace('#color="(.*?)"#', 'style="color: \\1"', $fon);

   if($return)

     return $ret;

   echo $ret;

   return true;

}

function xhtmlHighlightFile($path,$return=false) {

   $hlt = highlight_file($path, true);

   $fon = str_replace(array('<font ', '</font>'), array('<span ', '</span>'), $hlt);

   $ret = preg_replace('#color="(.*?)"#', 'style="color: \\1"', $fon);

   if($return)

     return $ret;

   echo $ret;

   return true;

}

?>

05-Nov-2005 11:05


growling octopus's code didn't work under Windows, so I made this and it worked:

<?php

if (!empty($_GET['source'])) {

   $f = file_get_contents($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']);

   highlight_string($f);

   exit();

}

?>

growlingoctopus at no-spam dot gmail dot com
17-Oct-2005 04:37


Here's a trick I use when I want to show people the source to one of my scripts, but don't feel like uploading phps files or the host doesn't support them.

<?php

if (!empty($_GET['source'])) {

    $f = implode(file(substr(__FILE__,strrpos(__FILE__,'/')+1)));

    highlight_string(trim(substr($f,strpos($f,'?'.'>')+2)));

    exit();    

}

?>

By adding that to the top of the script, you can then call the script with ?source=1 and it will show the source for the file ... it should work with any script (as long as you aren't using $_GET['source'] for something else, you can always change that if you do).

vouksh at vouksh dot info
10-Sep-2005 10:27


Fully working, XHTML 1.1 ready xhtml_highlight function. I included the stripslashes, because of some problems I had with out it. It should be safe to leave it in there, but if you experience problems, feel free to take it out.



<?

function xhtml_highlight($str) {

    $hlt = highlight_string(stripslashes($str), true);

    $fon = str_replace(array('<font ', '</font>'), array('<span ', '</span>'), $hlt);

    $ret = preg_replace('#color="(.*?)"#', 'style="color: \\1"', $fon);

    echo $ret;

    return true;

}

?>

webmaster at gelan dot org
20-Aug-2005 11:27


Some BB-codes width preg_replace:



<?php

function bb_url($str){

return preg_replace('#[URL=([^\']*)]([^\']*)[/URL]#', '<a href="\\1" target=_blank>\\2</a>', $str);

}

function bb_php($str){

$str = str_replace("]\n", "]", $str);

$match = array('#\[php\](.*?)\[\/php\]#se');

$replace = array("'<div>'.highlight_string(stripslashes('$1'), true).'</div>'");

return preg_replace($match, $replace, $str);

}

function bb_img($str){

return preg_replace('#[IMG]([^\']*)[/IMG]#', '<img src="\\1" />', $str);

}

function bb_b{$str){

return preg_replace('#[B]([^\']*)[/B]', '<strong>\\1</strong>', $str);

}

function bb_i{$str){

return preg_replace('#[I]([^\']*)[/I]', '<em>\\1</em>', $str);

}

function bb_parse{$str){

$str = bb_url($str);

$str = bb_php($str);

$str = bb_img($str);

$str = bb_b($str);

$str = bb_i($str);

return $str

}

?>

zer0
20-Jun-2005 09:18


Concerning my code below:



I'm sorry, I completely forgot about str_ireplace being for PHP 5 for some reason. Also, there was another error I missed (too many late nights ;)). Here's the corrected code:



<?php

    function highlight_code($code, $inline=false, $return=false) // Pre php 4 support for capturing highlight

    {

        (string) $highlight = "";

        if ( version_compare(PHP_VERSION, "4.2.0", "<") === 1 )

        {

            ob_start(); // start output buffering to capture contents of highlight

            highlight_string($code);

            $highlight = ob_get_contents(); // capture output

            ob_end_clean(); // clear buffer cleanly

        }

        else

        {

            $highlight=highlight_string($code, true);

        }

        

        # Using preg_replace will allow PHP 4 in on the fun

        if ( $inline === true )

            $highlight=preg_replace("/<code>/i","<code class=\"inline\">",$highlight);

        else

            $highlight=preg_replace("/<code>/i","<code class=\"block\">",$highlight);            

        

        if ( $return === true )

        {

            return $highlight;

        }

        else

        {

            echo $highlight;

        }

    }

?>

zero
16-Jun-2005 03:55


In some cases, I found that it's useful to have highlight_string format <code>...</code> inline as part of a paragraph, and other times, as a block for demonstrating multiple lines of code. I made this function to help out.



<?php

    function highlight_code($code, $inline=false, $return=false) // Pre php 4 support for capturing highlight

    {

        (string) $highlight = "";

        if ( version_compare(phpversion(), "4.2.0", "<") === 1 )

        {

            ob_start(); // start output buffering to capture contents of highlight

            highlight_string($code);

            $highlight = ob_get_contents(); // capture output

            ob_end_clean(); // clear buffer cleanly

        }

        else

        {

            $highlight=highlight_string($data, true);

        }

        

        ## The classes below need to correspond to a stylesheet!

        if ( $inline === true )

          $highlight=str_ireplace("<code>","<code class=\"inline\">",$highlight);

        else

          $highlight=str_ireplace("<code>","<code class=\"block\">",$highlight);

            

        

        if ( $return === true )

        {

            return $highlight;

        }

        else

        {

            echo $highlight;

        }

    }

?>

Sam Wilson
14-Jun-2005 11:32


manithu at fahr-zur-hoelle dot org forgot only one thing:  to fix the break tags.  The addidtion of the following should do it.



<?php

$str = str_replace("<br>", "<br />", $str);

?>

bpgordon at gmail dot com
13-Jun-2005 01:04


On dleavitt AT ucsc DOT edu's comment:



You might want to use md5($html_string) instead of "piggusmaloy" as a generally good programming practice. Just in case "piggusmaloy" is actually in $html_string.

dleavitt at ucsc dot edu
04-Jun-2005 02:37


This function does not seem to like <script> tags in HTML strings: if there are any close tags for scripts (whatever their language/type) the syntax highlighter will poop out. The workaround is simple though: 

<?php

$html_string = str_replace("script","piggusmaloy", $html_string);

$html_string = highlight_string($html_string, true);

$html_string = str_replace("piggusmaloy","script", $html_string);

echo $html_string;

?>

This works best if you don't have "piggusmaloy" anywhere in your string (a safe assumption?)

trixsey at animania dot nu
29-May-2005 04:02


A neat function I made. Syntax coloring, row numbers, varying background colors per row in the table.



<?

function showCode($code) {

    $html = highlight_string($code, true);

    $html = str_replace("\n", "", $html);

    $rows = explode("<br />", $html);



    $row_num = array();

    $i = 1;



    foreach($rows as $row) {

        if($i < 10) {

            $i = "0".$i;

        }



        if($i==1) {

            $row_num[] = "<tr><td><code><font color=\"#000000\"><code>$i</code></font>\t$row</code></td></tr>";

        }



        if($i!=1) {

            if(is_int($i/2)) {

                $row_num[] = "<tr bgcolor=\"#F9F9F9\"><td><code><font color=\"#000000\">$i</font>\t$row</code></td></tr>";

            } else {

                $row_num[] = "<tr><td><code><font color=\"#000000\">$i</font>\t$row</code></td></tr>";

            }

        }



        $i++;

    }

    return "<pre>\nFilename: <b>$_GET[file]</b>\n<table

    style=\"border:1px #000000 solid\">".implode($row_num)."</table></pre>";

}

?>

support at superhp dot de
10-Apr-2005 04:58


With this function you can highlight php code with line numbers:



<?php

function highlight_php($string)

{

  $Line = explode("\n",$string);



  for($i=1;$i<=count($Line);$i++)

  {

    $line .= "&nbsp;".$i."&nbsp;<br>";

  }

    

  ob_start();

  highlight_string($string);

  $Code=ob_get_contents();

  ob_end_clean();

  

  $header='<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%" style="border-style: solid; border-width:1px; border-color: white black black white">

    <tr>

      <td width="100%" colspan="2"  style="border-style: solid; border-width:1px; border-color: white; background-color: #99ccff; font-family:Arial; color:white; font-weight:bold;">Php-Code:</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

      <td width="3%" valign="top" style="background-color: #99ccff; border-style: solid; border-width:1px; border-color: white;"><code>'.$line.'</code></td>

      <td width="97%" valign="top" style="background-color: white;"><div style="white-space: nowrap; overflow: auto;"><code>';



  $footer=$Code.'</div></code></td>

    </tr>

  </table>';



  return $header.$footer;

} ?>

admin [at] develogix [dot] com
16-Feb-2005 11:15


I've been working on a good replacement for the highlight_string() function; and here is what I've come up with so far:



<?

function get_sourcecode_string($str, $return = false, $counting = true, $first_line_num = '1', $font_color = '#666'){

    $str = highlight_string($str, TRUE);

    $replace = array(

        '<font' => '<span',

        'color="' => 'style="color: ',

        '</font>' => '</span>',

        '<code>' => '',

        '</code>' => '',

        '<span style="color: #FF8000">' =>

            '<span style="color: '.$font_color.'">'

        );

    foreach ($replace as $html => $xhtml){

        $str = str_replace($html, $xhtml, $str);

    }

    // delete the first <span style="color:#000000;"> and the corresponding </span>

    $str = substr($str, 30, -9);

                

    $arr_html      = explode('<br />', $str);

    $total_lines   = count($arr_html);    

    $out           = '';

    $line_counter  = 0;

    $last_line_num = $first_line_num + $total_lines;

    

    foreach ($arr_html as $line){

        $line = str_replace(chr(13), '', $line);

        $current_line = $first_line_num + $line_counter;

        if ($counting){

            $out .= '<span style="color:'.$font_color.'">'

                  . str_repeat('&nbsp;', strlen($last_line_num) - strlen($current_line))

                  . $current_line

                  . ': </span>';

        }

        $out .= $line

              . '<br />'."\n";

        $line_counter++;

    }

    $out = '<code>'."\n".$out.'</code>."\n"';



    if ($return){return $out;}

    else {echo $out;}

}

?>



This function outputs valid XHTML 1.1 code by replacing font tags with span tags. You can also specify whether you want it to return or echo, output a line-count, the color of the line-count, and the starting line-count number.



Usage:

<?

// $str = string with php

// $return = true (return) / false (echo)

//    default of false

// $counting = true (count) / false (don't count)

//    default of true

// $start = starting count number

//    default of '1'

// $color = count color with preceding #

//    defalut of '#666'

get_sourcecode_string($str, $return,   $counting, $start, $color);

?>

gaggge at gmail dot com
30-Jan-2005 08:26


This is a little function for highlighting bbcode-stylish PHP code from a mysql database.

(Like this: [php]<?php echo "test"; ?>[/php])



<?php

function bbcode($s)

{

    $s = str_replace("]\n", "]", $s);

    $match = array('#\[php\](.*?)\[\/php\]#se');

    $replace = array("'<div>'.highlight_string(stripslashes('$1'), true).'</div>'");

    return preg_replace($match, $replace, $s);

}

?>

admin at bwongar dot com
05-Jan-2005 03:11


I didn't get the expected results from the other XHTML_highlight function, so I developed my own and it is much more efficient. The older one uses a preg_replace to replace the contents of the tag to within a span tag. The only preg_replace in my function pulls the color attribute, and puts it within a str_replace'd span tag.



<?php

function xhtml_highlight($str) {

    $str = highlight_string($str, true);

    $str = str_replace(array('<font ', '</font>'), array('<span ', '</span>'), $str);

    return preg_replace('#color="(.*?)"#', 'style="color: \\1"', $str);

}



?>

manithu at fahr-zur-hoelle dot org
06-Nov-2004 11:10


This function will return highlighted, xhtml 1.1 valid code (replaces <font> with <span> elements and color with style attributes):



<?php



function xhtml_highlight($str) {

    $str = highlight_string($str, true);

    //replace <code><font color=""></font></code>

    $str = preg_replace('#<font color="([^\']*)">([^\']*)</font>#', '<span style="color: \\1">\\2</span>', $str);

    //replace other <font> elements

    return preg_replace('#<font color="([^\']*)">([^\']*)</font>#U', '<span style="color: \\1">\\2</span>', $str);

}



?>

mastah_br at yahoo dot com
11-Oct-2004 08:31


If you're looking for a more generic syntax highlighter, then you should see GeSHi Project, at http://qbnz.com/highlighter/

aidan at php dot net
26-Sep-2004 08:29


To add line numbers to source code, with optional function linking, use the below function:





http://aidan.dotgeek.org/lib/?file=function.highlight_file_linenum.php





A much more thorough and smarter, though slower version is here:





http://aidan.dotgeek.org/lib/?file=PHP_Highlight.php

add a note

MANUAL DE PHP

windsurf mercedes camper

highlight_string

DescripciÃ³n