CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phppreg-match-all
Jade Ryan Ibarrola
Jade Ryan Ibarrola

Reputation: 67

PHP preg_match_all

I would like to ask about php's preg_match_all. suppose we have the sample string below:

This is a clause with -value1- and -_value_2_- having a subclause of -value.3- items.

And i would like to extract all strings with the opening "-" and closing "-" characters. Needed output should be:

Array  
(
[0] => Array  
    (
            [0] => -_value1_-  
            [1] => -_value_2_-  
            [2] => -_value.3_-  
        )  
)

Upvotes: 1

Views: 343

Answers (4)

Danon
Danon

Reputation: 2973

You could use T-Regx library that automatically adds delimiters

pattern('-.*?-')->match($string)->all();

the result is

Array  
(
      [0] => -_value1_-  
      [1] => -_value_2_-  
      [2] => -_value.3_-  
)

Upvotes: 0

Ahmet Can Güven
Ahmet Can Güven

Reputation: 5462

Sometimes preg_match_all() can be too complicated. In these cases you can use explode for this aim.

$matches = explode("-", $input);

What explode() does?

$input = "This is a basic example: -JOHN-. The End";

explode() converts $matches to an array. After that searches $input for "-" character. After finding the "-" it will set array like below.

$input[0] ---> "This is a basic example: "

$input[1] ---> "JOHN"

$input[2] ---> ". The End"

explode() is an alternative way. But the best one is of course preg_match_all()

Upvotes: 0

anubhava
anubhava

Reputation: 784998

You can use this code:

$str="This is a clause with -value1- and -_value_2_- having a subclause of -value.3- items.";
if (preg_match_all('/-[^-]*-/', $str, $m))
      print_r($m[0]);

Upvotes: 0

Cheery
Cheery

Reputation: 16214

Use one of the following simple regexps /-.*?-/ or /-.*-/U

U (PCRE_UNGREEDY) This modifier inverts the "greediness" of the quantifiers so that they are not greedy by default, but become greedy if followed by ?. It is not compatible with Perl. It can also be set by a (?U) modifier setting within the pattern or by a question mark behind a quantifier (e.g. .*?).

Upvotes: 2

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