PHP hide part of string - php

Question

I'm searching for the most elegant way in PHP to hide a string (for example an username).
For example, usernames should be shown as:
tim will be shown as: t*m
So the username itself is not completely "cryptically", but no one can guess their login name or at least not for sure.

Answer 1

You can use preg_replace:
$string = 'usernameTest';
echo preg_replace("/(?!^).(?!$)/", "*", $string); // u**********t
(?!^) Checks if the character is not the first character in the string.
. matches any character
(?!$) Checks if the character is not the last character in the string.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You can use the following regex along with preg_replace function like as
(^.|.$)(*SKIP)(*F)|(.)
Example
$your_string = "Narendra";
echo preg_replace("/(^.|.$)(*SKIP)(*F)|(.)/","*",$your_string);
Output :
N******a
Explanation of Regex:
(^.|.$) This'll capture the first and last alphabet of the word
(*SKIP)(*F) This'll skip the above captured words
|(.) Over here rest of the alphabets'll be captured and can be replaced further with your character i.e. * over here
Demo

Answer 3

Try:
function get_starred($str) {
$len = strlen($str);
return substr($str, 0, 1).str_repeat('*', $len - 2).substr($str, $len - 1, 1);
}
$myStr = 'YourName';
echo get_starred($myStr); //should show Y******e

Answer 4

You can do something like this for example:
<?php
function HideUN($username = "") {
$replaced = "";
# Count the characters in username and remove an extra asterik (*)
# Substring, remove all characters and leave the first one and add the last one
for($i = 0; $i < strlen($username) -1; $i++) $replaced .= "*";
return substr($username, 0, 1)."".$replaced."".substr($username, -1, 1);
}
# Call this function
$string = "John";
echo HideUN($string);
?>
The substr() removes all characters after the first one, then the for() loop, counts the characters from $string and then we gonna add the asterik (*) to an other variable called $replaced.
Then at the end we put them together in an echo. Output: J***n

Answer 5

function Split_Hide_Name($name) {
$name = trim($name);
$split_name = explode(' ',$name);
foreach($split_name as $v) {
$string []= strlen($v);
}
$number_of_letters_to_show = 3;
$first_name_length = $string[0];
$last_name_length = $string[count($string)-1];
$first_name1 = $split_name[0];
$last_name1 = $split_name[count($string)-1];
$fname_cover = '';
for ($i = 0; $i < $first_name_length - $number_of_letters_to_show; $i++){
$fname_cover .="*";
}
$lname_cover = '';
for ($i = 0; $i < $last_name_length - $number_of_letters_to_show; $i++){
$lname_cover .="*";
}
$first_name = substr_replace($first_name1,$fname_cover,$number_of_letters_to_show);
$last_name = substr_replace($last_name1,$lname_cover,$number_of_letters_to_show);
return $first_name.' '.$last_name;}