postgresql extended string translation

PostgreSQL provides a built-in function for character wise string replacement:

select translate('abcdefghijkl', 'ace', '123');
  translate   
--------------
 1b2d3fghijkl

pgstrtranslate extends it with multi-character replacement. It takes 4 arguments and returning a text.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.pgstrtranslate(
    fullsearch boolean,
    t text,
    search text[],
    replacement text[])
  RETURNS text AS
'$libdir/pgstrtranslate', 'pgstrtranslate'
  LANGUAGE c IMMUTABLE STRICT;

How it works:

Non-fullsearch replacement:

select pgstrtranslate(false, --non-fullsearch
	'abcdefghijkl', --original string
	array['ab', 'efg', '2cd']::text[], --array of searchs
	array['012', '3', '78']::text[]); --array of replacement
  translate   
--------------
 012cd3hijkl

'abcdefghijkl' -> '012cd3hijkl'
Note that '2cd' does not match original string.

Fullsearch replacement:

select pgstrtranslate(true, --fullsearch
	'abcdefghijkl', --original string
	array['ab', 'efg', '2cd']::text[], --array of searchs
	array['012', '3', '78']::text[]); --array of replacement
  translate   
--------------
 01783hijkl

Replace 'ab' with '012': 'abcdefghijkl' -> '012cdefghijkl'
Replace 'efg' with '3': '012cdefghijkl' -> '012cd3hijkl'
Replace '2cd' with '78': '012cd3hijkl' -> '01783hijkl'

How to install

1. Clone or download source code from https://github.com/AbdulYadi/pgstrtranslate.git. Extract it.
2. If necessary, modify PG_CONFIG path according to your specific PostgreSQL installation location.
3. Build as usual:

$ make
$ make install

4. On successful compilation, install this extension in PostgreSQL environment

$ create extension pgstrtranslate;