reg_replace - ignore long words

I am working with the following preg_replace code:

$text = preg_replace("|($word)|Ui" , "[h]$1[/h]" , $text );

Code (markup):

It applies highlighting [h]..[/h] to all words in $text matching $word

But I don't want it to apply highlighting if the matched word in $text is longer than 15 characters.

Example:
$word = 'chicken';

$text contains:
chickensoup -> 11 characters -> apply highlighting -> chickensoup
chickensoupfortoday -> 19 characters -> don't apply highlighting

I have read somewhere that one can use the curly brackets e.g. {15,} but I am not sure how to use it.

 

maybe reg ex isnt the best method? Perhaps using raw PHP code to split the data then apply the formatting...

 

"|($word){1,15}|Ui"

 

Actually, I think you would need to do this assuming your regex already works.

if(strlen($word) < 15){

$text = preg_replace("|($word)|Ui" , "[h]$1[/h]" , $text );

}

 

Because $word itself will have a variable length, a pattern would be too complicated.

Keep it simple and use preg_replace_callback instead so you can check the length within the callback function and react to it there.