title: ereg_replace for PHP 5.3 +?
body: <p>I've seen a solution for not having to rework usage of the ereg function for PHP 5.3:
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/737198/good-alternative-to-eregi-in-php">Good alternative to eregi() in PHP</a></p>
  
  <p>It uses <code>if(!function_exists....</code></p>
  
  <p>Is there a function that can be used in this way for <code>ereg_replace</code>?</p>
  
  <pre><code>ereg_replace("&lt;!--.*--&gt;","",$str);
  
  ereg_replace("[^a-z,A-Z]", "", $str);
  </code></pre>