I'm using a script that gets a variable from the url. Basically this is how search is implemented. I want to prevent pages with bad words in the url. example url ending /index.php?key=arse
I've been poking around after this line with mixed results.

variable.  $key = urlencode(custom_get('key'));

Not needing a perfect solution. Changing $key to something safe if it contains a word (ignore cap) from a bad word list.

str_replace(); ?

Originally Posted by lynxus

str_replace(); ?

That kinda works, but often just removing or replacing the bad word--will result in some nonsense search or worse. If the url ends with "having+***+with+a+dog" -- removing *** so it reads "having+with+a+dog" may likely return the same result. (YouTube video search)

I'd rather effectively say if $key contains any of the following badwords, then change to $key=sunshine

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.stristr.php

PHP Code:

$badWords = array( /* ... */ );

foreach($badWords as $word)
{
     if(stristr($key, $word)) //if $key contains $word
     {
           $key = 'sunshine';
     }
} 


Thanks NullPointer. That did it. I had been reading the page you linked to and others but it wasn't sinking in. It's been at least a year since I've dug into any PHP.