str_replace doesn't work with slash - php

Question

For some reason str_replace() does not work with /. I am creating a function to accept a unique linking style in input and text area forms for a blog CMS that I am making. For instance, [{http://brannondorsey.com}My Website] will be translated to <a href='http://brannondorsey.com'>My Website</a> when passed through make_link($string);. Here is my code:
function make_link($input){
$double = str_replace( '"', '&#34', $input);
$single = str_replace("'", "&#39", $double);
$bracket_erase = str_replace('[', "", $single);
$link_open = str_replace('{', '<a href="', $bracket_erase);
$link_close = str_replace("}", ">", $link_open);
$link_value = str_replace(']', "</a>", $link_close);
echo $link_value;
}
Everything works correctly except for ] is not replaced with </a>. If I remove the slash it will successfully replace ] with <a>, however, as we all know, that does not properly close an anchor tag and therefor makes all html content between the {and the next closing anchor tag in my webpage a link.

Answer 1

You might want to go down the regular expression route for this.
function make_link($link){
return preg_replace('/\[{(.*?)}(.*?)\]/i', '$2', $link);
}

Answer 2

I personally suggest the preg_replace answer of Marcus Recck below rather than mine here.
its there just not seen because the browser wont show html, but you can use the below to see it, and\or use the browsers view source option
$link_close ="]";
$link_value = str_replace(']', "</a>", $link_close);
echo htmlspecialchars($link_value);//= </a>
var_dump ($link_value); //=string(4) "" [invisible due to browser, but the 4 tells you its there]
the finial version of the OP's function:
function make_link($input){
$double = str_replace( '"', '&#34', $input);
$single = str_replace("'", "&#39", $double);
$bracket_erase = str_replace('[', "", $single);
$link_open = str_replace('{', '<a href="', $bracket_erase);
$link_close = str_replace("}", '">', $link_open);
$link_value = str_replace(']', "</a>", $link_close);
return $link_value;
}
echo htmlspecialchars(make_link('[{http://brannondorsey.com}My Website]'));