str_replace() ignores the count parameter?

Question

As given here str_replace() count parameter should stop if certain replacements are done. Right?

Here is my code:

define("PLACEHOLDER", "INSERT INTO `listings` VALUES (NULL, '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s');".PHP_EOL);
$r = (4 - count($_POST['ad']));
print count($_POST['ad'])."\n";
print $r;
$pf_args = str_replace("'%s', ", "", PLACEHOLDER, $r);
print $pf_args;

Now I double-checked everything that $r = 1 in one my test and to be doubly sure count($_POST['ad']) is 3. Still, str_replace completely ignores count parameter and replaces all occurances to give:

INSERT INTO `listings` VALUES (NULL, '%s');

This is driving me insane. Having seen so much anti-php talks, such eccentric behaviour(s) mkes me feel that they are bugs or another one of those weird magic it possesses.

Answer 1

I believe $count is used to check how many replacements were performed (for example, if you printed $count after using str_replace(), you would get 10).

You could do what you want to do by using preg_replace() with a little regex. Please see: How to use str_replace() to remove text a certain number of times only in PHP?