How to change part of an url in php? - php

Question

I am new to PHP and I am trying to work on this one problem where the middle of a URL changes.
For instance using this fake URL,
$url = 'http://www.bobsplace.com/events/georgetown/12354544233123';
I need to be able to substitute "georgetown" out with a random variable.
So I guess I need to like slice the URL after events, have a variable where "georgetown" would be, and then have the rest of the URL continue after it. I hope I am making as much sense as possible.
Alright,
I tried all these and still go errors, but most likely it is due to my current coding. I am entering the entire thing in now.
<?
// This URL only shows future events
$url = 'https://graph.facebook.com/192674347443031/events?access_token=153420758043439|66d692f0e73ad17d939d9d9c-1045402872|8VHLfMb3gYY0p9fnT7wMS8Q9Krc&expires_in=0&since=yesterday' ;
$event_id = get_post_custom_values('facebook_id');
$url = str_replace('/192674347443031/', '/' . $event_id . '/', $url);
$json = file_get_contents($url) ;
$data = json_decode( $json,true) ;
//var_dump($data) ;
$sorted_array = array_reverse($data['data'], TRUE) ;
foreach ($sorted_array as $key => $value) {
//print_r($value) ;
?>
<? echo "<li><a href='http://facebook.com/event.php?eid=". $value['id'] . "' target='_blank'>" ;
echo "<h2>" . $value['name'] . "</h2>" ;
echo "</a>" ;
echo " (" . $value['location'] .") <br />" ;
echo date("F j, Y, g:i a" , strtotime($value['start_time'])) . " to " . date("F j, Y, g:i a" , strtotime($value['end_time'])) ;?>
<div class="moreinfo">
<? echo "<a href='http://facebook.com/event.php?eid=". $value['id'] . " ' target='_blank'>" ;
echo "<b>" . 'More info' . "</b>" ;
echo "</a>" ;?>
</div>
<? echo "</li>";
}
?>
The errors I keep getting are now saying my array_reverse() should be an array. And also invalid argument foreach()
Now this is not the entire code on that page, but this is the snippet that is giving me problems.

Answer 1

you can do :
$url = 'http//:www.bobsplace.com/events/georgetown/12354544233123';
$my_var = 'foobar';
$url = str_replace("georgetown", $my_var, $url );
or :
$url = 'http//:www.bobsplace.com/events/georgetown/12354544233123';
$my_var = 'foobar';
$temp = explode( '/' , $url );
$temp[4] = $my_var;
$url = implode( '/' , $temp );
First one will replace by name , second one by position in URL.

Answer 2

I think you're trying to say that you want to replace the text "georgetown". If that's correct, the following code should work (make sure you've defined $replace to what you want to replace it with):
$url = str_replace('/georgetown/', '/' . $replace . '/', $url);

Answer 3

$variable = 'place'; //e.g. georgetown
$url = 'http:www.bobsplace.com/events/'.$variable.'/12354544233123';
I think this is what you're asking for.