How to add backslash before every special character in php

Question

I want to add backslash before every character in php

below is my string

AT POST :- SARIGAM, (BHANDARI STREET)
PIN : 396155 STATE: GUJARAT 
VALSAD GUJARAT   396155 
India

Some special character are not i this string but answer should be valid for all the special character.

I have tried below, but not able to success.

if (preg_match('/[\'^£$%&*()}{@#~?><>,|=_+¬-]/', $address))
            {               
                str_replace('/[\'^£$%&*()}{@#~?><>,|=_+¬-]/', "\\", $address);
            }

Why not just use `preg_replace()` instead of combining `preg_match()` with `str_replace()`? — M. Eriksson, Mar 15 '19 at 07:00
Let's also take a minute to question the purpose here. SQL escaping? Shell commands? — mario, Mar 15 '19 at 07:02
You might also want [htmlentities() and/or htmlspecialchars()](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46483/htmlentities-vs-htmlspecialchars/46491#46491) — Pinke Helga, Mar 15 '19 at 07:09
*"but answer should be valid for all the special character"* How do you define "all the special characters"? Which are special, which are not? — Pinke Helga, Mar 15 '19 at 07:17

Nick · Answer 1 · 2019-03-18T19:55:36.140

1

You can just use preg_replace to replace all non-alphanumeric and whitespace characters with a backslash and the character:

echo preg_replace('/([^A-Za-z0-9\s])/', '\\\\$1', $address);

Output:

AT POST \:\- SARIGAM\, \(BHANDARI STREET\)
PIN \: 396155 STATE\: GUJARAT 
VALSAD GUJARAT 396155 
India

Demo on 3v4l.org

edited Mar 18 '19 at 19:55

answered Mar 15 '19 at 07:42

Nick

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How to add backslash before every special character in php

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