Need to highlight overlapping text using PHP

I am looking for means to highlight certain text on a page. I use <span class="highlight">This is a sample</span> to replace the text "This is a sample" that is found, with the help of the preg_replace function.

My problem arises when there is overlapping text. If I search for the phrase "sample text" on t开发者_如何学Pythonhe same page, it is not highlighted. I need the highlighting to merge.

Any help with this problem would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Don't replace text. Find positions of texts that need highlighting, sort them by beginnings and check if in that ordered list item's begining of next item "overlaps" ending of previous.

Text:
This is a sample text.
0123456789...
Items to highlight: This is and is a.

Ordered list I'm talking about: [[0, 7], [5, 9]]. 5 and 7 "ovrelap".

as far as i understand your needs, I think you need to split all sentences giving you words and then you can highlighten them individualy.