Regex to find information in PHP function

Question

I'm working on a regex but I'm not able to fix it.

I'm scanning documents (.php) with PHP and I'm looking for: $__this('[TEXT]') or $__this("[TEXT]")

So my question is: can somebody help me with a regex that searches in a string for: $__this('[TEXT]') or $__this("[TEXT]") and gives me [TEXT]

UPDATE (with answer, thanks to @Explosion Pills):

$string = '$__this("Foo Bar<br>HelloHello")';
preg_match('/\$__this\(([\'"])(.*?)\1\)/xi', $string, $matches);
print_r($matches);

Even if the text is given back, you still need to do extra processing to get back the actual string, though. — nhahtdh
– nhahtdh, Commented Feb 1, 2013 at 14:09
You can use this: php.net/manual/en/function.token-get-all.php to tokenize the PHP file into PHP tokens. The rest should not be that hard. — nhahtdh
– nhahtdh, Commented Feb 1, 2013 at 14:11
You would probably need something like this: \$__this(('|")[(\w+)]('|")) — oopbase
– oopbase, Commented Feb 1, 2013 at 14:11
why would you want to scan PHP code like that? Please tell me you're not planning on writing a PHP program that modifies other PHP programs? That's a scary thought. — SDC
– SDC, Commented Feb 1, 2013 at 14:14

Explosion Pills · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-01 14:17:14Z

2

preg_match('/
    \$__this # just $__this.  $ is meta character and must be escaped
    \(       # open paren also must be escaped
    ([\'"])  # open quote (capture for later use).  \' is needed in string
    (\[      # start capture.  open bracket must also be escaped
    .*?      # Ungreedily capture whatever is between the quotes
    \])      # close the open bracket and end capture
    \1       # close the quote (captured earlier)
    \)       # close the parentheses
/xi'         # ignore whitespace in pattern, allow comments, case insensitive
, $document, $matches);

The captured text will be in $matches[2]. This assumes one possible capture per line. If you need more, use preg_match_all.

answered Feb 1, 2013 at 14:17

Explosion Pills

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7 Comments

nhahtdh Over a year ago

This work if assuming all the text has format [something here], but I think [] is just some sort of marking saying that that part can be anything. The question is quite unclear on this point.

Explosion Pills Over a year ago

@nhahtdh if the [] are not actually a part of the string, then you can simply remove them from my pattern. I thought they were specifically there, though. Does that make my answer unworthy of an upvote?

nhahtdh Over a year ago

If the text contain '", and you also remove [], then your answer worth a down vote.

Bob van Luijt Over a year ago

Nhahtdh is right. This works: $string = '$__this("[TEXT]")'; But I want also to get (for example): $string = '$__this("Foo Bar")'; PS: I will update this question when I've got it :-)

Explosion Pills Over a year ago

@nhahtdh I don't understand what you mean. Are you telling me to change something? I will remove the \[ and \]. What do you mean if it contain '"?

|

Toto · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-01 14:23:22Z

how about:

preg_match('/\$__this(?:(\'|")\((.+?)\)\1)/', $string);

explanation:

(?-imsx:\$__this(?:(\'|")\((.+?)\)\1))

matches as follows:

NODE                     EXPLANATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(?-imsx:                 group, but do not capture (case-sensitive)
                         (with ^ and $ matching normally) (with . not
                         matching \n) (matching whitespace and #
                         normally):
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  \$                       '$'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  __this                   '__this'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  (?:                      group, but do not capture:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    (                        group and capture to \1:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
      \'                       '''
----------------------------------------------------------------------
     |                        OR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
      "                        '"'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    )                        end of \1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    \(                       '('
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    (                        group and capture to \2:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
      .+?                      any character except \n (1 or more
                               times (matching the least amount
                               possible))
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    )                        end of \2
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    \)                       ')'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1                       what was matched by capture \1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  )                        end of grouping
----------------------------------------------------------------------
)                        end of grouping
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Louis Ricci · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-01 14:37:22Z

0

Here's a solution that will catch strings with quotes and apostrophes in them as well.

$txt = "
blah blah blah
blah \$_this('abc') blah
blah \$_this('a\"b\"c') blah balah \$_this('a\"b\"c\'')
\$_this(\"123\");\$_this(\"1'23\") \$_this(\"1'23\\\"\")
";

  $matches = array();
  preg_match_all('/(?:\$_this\()(?:[\'"])(.*?[^\\\])(?:[\'"])(?:\))/im', $txt, $matches);
  print_r($matches[1]);

answered Feb 1, 2013 at 14:37

Louis Ricci

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