PHP preg_replace with newlines

Question

Got text a little like this coming out of a database

[color=#BF0000]This is just a very simple test. 
Cheers Fred[/color]

Now this text could have newlines anywhere in it between the [color...] and [/color].

Been trying to use this regex within preg_replace, this is the pattern

\[color=(#[0-9a-f]{3}|#[0-9a-f]{6}|[a-z\-]+)\](.*?)\[\/color\]/i

and gets replaced with

<span style=\"color:$1\">$2</span>

All works great if there are no newlines in the text. I know I need to make changes around (.*?) but no idea what, can anyone help with this?

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-27 09:46:50Z

2

Use s modifier to make dot match newlines:

'~\[color=(#[0-9a-f]{3}|#[0-9a-f]{6}|[a-z-]+)\](.*?)\[/color\]~is'

Also you can use an alternate regex delimiter to avoid escaping forward slash.

answered Nov 27, 2013 at 9:46

anubhava

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1 Comment

Groan as simple at that, I'd tried all ways but that, thanks