Inline variable parsing function with multibyte support

gistfile1.aw

<?php

// parseInlineVariables takes a multibyte string "stringToParse" and parses for $variable style
// variables to swap with the value found in the "variables" associative array. It also supports
// better matching with curly braces surrounding the variable, such as {$variable}.  Spaces 
// within the curly braces are OK: { $variable } works too.
// Adapt this function to your particular framework (put it in a class, keep it global, etc)

function parseInlineVariables( $stringToParse, Array $variables )
{
	do
	{
		mb_ereg_search_init( $stringToParse, '({[ ]*\$[A-Za-z0-9-_]+[ ]*}|\$[A-Za-z0-9-_]+)' );

		if( ( $pos = mb_ereg_search_pos() ) !== false )
		{
			$offset = $pos[ 0 ];
			$length = $pos[ 1 ];
			$match = mb_substr( $stringToParse, $offset, $length );

			$key = trim( $match, '${} ' );

			$before = mb_substr( $stringToParse, 0, $offset );
			$after = mb_substr( $stringToParse, $offset + $length );

			$value = isset( $variables[ $key ] ) ? ( string )$variables[ $key ] : "";

			$stringToParse = $before . $value . $after;
		}
	}
	while( $pos );

	return $stringToParse;
}