Here is a list of examples of PHP regular expressions examples. Maybe this helps someone, as admin/ or another user can't make clear that I was trying to share my approaches.
preg_match does the search (preg_replace is a replacer).
preg_match has three parameters - preg_match(FindWhat, FindWhere, GivingOutput);
Example 1):
<?php
// Everything expect letters and numbers
$text = 'abc345fg@h';
$newfilename = preg_match('/[^a-zA-Z0-9.]/', $text, $out);
echo $out[0];
?>
Output will be:
@
preg_match finds only one result (the firstly found result), with two options: [0] or 1.
Example 2): find everything (any characters,words..) inside our search criteria:
<?php
$text = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrst';
$newfilename = preg_match('/ij(.*?)mn/', $text, $out);
echo $out[0];
echo $out[1];
?>
[1] -gives only the inner search result (what we had in the brackets, between "ij" and "mn"):
kl
[0] -gives the whole search result:
ijklmn
(Note, that option 1 is not available if when you don’t use brackets in search criteria (as we have above, in example 1)
Example 3):
If your target text has many same occurrences, like this: $text = 'Hello user Jimmy Jones, it\'s me. Hello user Mery Pawders, it\'s still me.';
Now, here are two different matches, so, we need to use preg_match_all
<?php
$text = 'Hello user Jimmy Jones, it\'s me. Hello user Mery Pawders, it\'s me.';
$newfilename = preg_match_all('/hello user (.*?) it\'s/', $text, $out);
foreach ($out[1] as $found_one) {
echo $found_one;
}
// Or use $out[0] for full search match
?>
Output will be:
Jimmy Jones,
Mery Pawders,
Example 4): search among many possibilities:
<?php
$text = 'member ACCOUNT7';
preg_match("/ACCOUNT[123456789]/", $text, $out);
echo $out[1];
?>
Output will be:
ACCOUNT7
Example 5): To find a string, while input text contains new lines, you must uses at the end;
<?php
$text = 'one
two
three';
preg_match("/one(.*?)three/s", $text, $out);
echo $out[1];
?>
Output will be:
two
Example 6): Your search is always case sensitive. To make a case insensitive search, use i at the end (if you want, without s);
<?php
$text = 'ONE TWO TREE';
preg_match("/one(.*?)three/si", $text, $out);
echo $out[1];
?>
Example 7): to search for special characters (like /".<*'?, etc.) inside preg_match, you need to use this escape sign: \
<?php
$text = 'hello Jimmy/Kroger ';
preg_match("/Jimmy\/Kroger/", $text, $out);
echo $out[0];
?>
Now, we can use the ^ operator, which searches for results conversely.
Example 8): find everything rather than letters and numbers:
<?php
$text = 'abc@*&^)($%';
preg_match_all('/[^a-zA-Z0-9.]/', $text, $out);
foreach ($out[0] as $varr) {
echo $varr;
}
?>
Output will be:
@*&^)($%
For search and replace, we have a bit different structure, as we need to use the new variable.
Example 9): find and replace everything rather than letters and numbers with other character, using this operator: ^
<?php
$text = 'ab2sq)(&*(%$%^$@%n23f9';
$variable = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9.]/', 'a', $text);
echo $variable;
?>
Output will be:
ab2sqn23f9
Example 10): search and add something inside the found results:
<?php
$text = 'Hi, it\'s me, Niko from Austria';
$variable = preg_replace('/(Niko.*?) from/', '$1 Gomez', $text);
echo $variable;
?>
Output will be:
it's me, Niko Gomez Austria
Example 11): find all links inside text:
<?php
$text = 'hi, my site is http://example.com, and on my page, at http://example.com/page37/blabla.html I wrote something..';
preg_match_all("/[[:alpha:]]+:\/\/[^<>[:space:]]+[[:alnum:]\/]/",$text, $out);
foreach($out[0] as $varr){
echo $varr;
}
?>
Output will be:
http://example.com
http://example.com/page37/blabla.html
Example 12): like the example 11 (but with replace) - find links in text and put them in anchored tags:
<?php
$text = 'Hi, my site is http://example.com, and on my page, at http://example.com/page37/trid.html I wrote something..';
$variable = preg_replace("/[[:alpha:]]+:\/\/[^<>[:space:]]+[[:alnum:]\/]/",'<a href="\\0">\\0</a>', $text);
echo $variable;
?>
Output will be the same sentence, but the links will be anchored.
1) Tips: Do not use preg_match() if you only want to check if one string is contained in another string. Use stristr() or strpos() instead as they will be faster.
2) **More advanced, specific examples about PHP regular expressions, use Google, or see ** full options and manuals at - http://www.php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.syntax.php
(You can review shortly all operators list here -
http://www.catswhocode.com/blog/15-php-regular-expressions-for-web-developers
http://www.noupe.com/php/php-regular-expressions.html
)
3) For HTML codes, there exist special light, PHP software, called- DOM Parser. But sometimes, if you know PHP regular expressions well, you might not need a DOM parser.
Shopand end with0?SHOP_psgarden_0is not a valid email address. – Mucous