php - str_replace

In the end I have solved the doubt on the other hand, so I proceed to explain.

The problem is finally not solved by the str_replace , since by doing a var_dump($ordendetalle) we obtain.

["customer_id"]=> string(3) "979"
["customer_email"]=> string(23) "[email protected]"
["customer_firstname"]=> string(7) "UserTest"
["customer_lastname"]=> string(10) "Hernández"

That is, the surname is stored well inside the object $ordendetalle . The problem lies in the way that json encodes the " special " characters. json_encode preferably encodes non-ASCII characters using \u.... escape sequences.

To avoid that json_encode encode using these sequences we use JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE and would not need anything from str_replace or preg_replace , because when receiving Hern\u00e1ndez and doing json_encode with JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE we avoid using of the sequence \u00e1 and encode á with so you wanted to like this:

//$lastname_consumer = $ordendetalle['customer_lastname']; //recibo el apellido
//$str_lastname = str_replace('\u','u',$lastname_consumer);
//$lastname = preg_replace('/u([\da-fA-F]{4})/', '&#x;', $str_lastname);

$customer = array ( 'customer' => array ( 'id' => $ordendetalle['customerId'], 
                                          'lastname' => $ordendetalle['lastname'], //Hern\u00e1ndez 
                                       )                        
                  );

$customer_order = print_r(json_encode($customer,JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE), true);

And I would paint:

        "id": "979",
        "lastname": "Hernández"

A more theoretical explanation of JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE and where in the end I ended up solving the doubt you have it here

Suppose that the endpoint where you ask the name gets an object in the answer and it is given to you by json_encoded, which is what the API should do if it is going to deliver a json and not a simple string:

<?php
$input = ['nombre'=>'joaquín', 'apellido'=>'hernández'];
$utf8_encoded = json_encode($input);

echo '<pre>';
print_r($utf8_encoded);
echo '</pre>';

What you get, i.e. what the API delivers has the form:

{"nombre":"joaqu\u00edn","apellido":"hern\u00e1ndez"}

You should be able to do:

$json_decoded=json_decode($utf8_encoded,true);
echo 'str_lastname: '.$json_decoded['apellido'].PHP_EOL;

And get cleanly

Hernández

But if you want to follow the path of the replacement:

$lastname_consumer = 'Hern\u00e1ndes';

$replaced =  str_replace("\u",'&',$lastname_consumer);
echo 'replaced: '.$replaced.PHP_EOL; // replaced: Hern&00e1ndes


$preg_replaced = preg_replace('/&([\da-fA-F]{4})/', '&#x;',$replaced); 
echo 'preg_replaced: '.$preg_replaced.PHP_EOL; // preg_replaced: Hernándes

// pero lo que en realidad contiene $preg_replaces es...    
$entities = htmlentities($preg_replaced);
echo 'entities: '.$entities.PHP_EOL; // entities: Hernándes

As you can see, $preg_replaced actually contains:

Hernándes

That is printed on the screen as Hernández because, badly wrong, PHP is a Hypertext Processor and by default it will print the HTML entity á as é .

The same could be achieved by doing:

$lastname_consumer = 'Hern\u00e1ndes';
$preg_replace = preg_replace('/\\u([\da-fA-F]{4})/', '&#x;', $lastname_consumer);

Depending on some configuration options and extensions, your replacement using regular expressions might fail or not deliver the expected results. That's why the first thing I suggested to you, using simply json_decode, seems to me the healthiest solution :

echo json_decode('"Hern\u00e1ndez"') // imprime Hernández