PHP equivalent of Python's `str.format` method? - php

Question

Is there an equivalent of Python str.format in PHP?
In Python:
"my {} {} cat".format("red", "fat")
All I see I can do in PHP natively is by naming the entries and using str_replace:
str_replace(array('{attr1}', '{attr2}'), array('red', 'fat'), 'my {attr1} {attr2} cat')
Is there any other PHP's native alternatives?

Answer 1

sprintf is the closest thing. It's the old-style Python string formatting:
sprintf("my %s %s cat", "red", "fat")

Answer 2

As PHP doesn't really have a proper alternative to str.format in Python, I decided to implement my very simple own which as most of the basic functionnalitites of the Python's one.
function format($msg, $vars)
{
$vars = (array)$vars;
$msg = preg_replace_callback('#\{\}#', function($r){
static $i = 0;
return '{'.($i++).'}';
}, $msg);
return str_replace(
array_map(function($k) {
return '{'.$k.'}';
}, array_keys($vars)),
array_values($vars),
$msg
);
}
# Samples:
# Hello foo and bar
echo format('Hello {} and {}.', array('foo', 'bar'));
# Hello Mom
echo format('Hello {}', 'Mom');
# Hello foo, bar and foo
echo format('Hello {}, {1} and {0}', array('foo', 'bar'));
# I'm not a fool nor a bar
echo format('I\'m not a {foo} nor a {}', array('foo' => 'fool', 'bar'));
The order doesn't matter,
You can omit the name/number if you want it to simply increment (the first {} matched will be transformed into {0}, etc),
You can name your parameters,
You can mix the three other points.

Answer 3

I know it's an old question, but I believe strtr with replace pairs deserves to be mentioned:
(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)
strtr — Translate characters or replace substrings
Description:
strtr ( string $str , string $from , string $to ) : string
strtr ( string $str , array $replace_pairs ) : string
<?php
var_dump(
strtr(
"test {test1} {test1} test1 {test2}",
[
"{test1}" => "two",
"{test2}" => "four",
"test1" => "three",
"test" => "one"
]
));
?>
this code would output:
string(22) "one two two three four"
Same output is generated even if you change the array items order:
<?php
var_dump(
strtr(
"test {test1} {test1} test1 {test2}",
[
"test" => "one",
"test1" => "three",
"{test1}" => "two",
"{test2}" => "four"
]
));
?>
string(22) "one two two three four"