PHP - Regular Expressions - Match regexp without including the same regexp multiple times

Question

Using PHP, I have the folloowing code:

$text = '[text 1] highlight("ABC DEF") [text 2] highlight("GHI JKL") [text 3] [text 4]';

Then I want to catch the following groups:

group 1: highlight("ABC DEF") [text 2]
group 2: highlight("GHI JKL") [text 3] [text 4]

I tried the following:

preg_match_all('/highlight.*/', $text, $matches);
print_r($matches);

but I get:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => highlight("ABC DEF") [text 2] highlight("GHI JKL") [text 3] [text 4]
        )

)

But that's not what I want because it is all together.

I also tried:

preg_match_all('/highlight/', $text, $matches);
print_r($matches);

but I get:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => highlight
            [1] => highlight
        )

)

And that's not what I want neither.

Any idea what regexp to use in order to get the groups I mentioned above?

xate · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-22 19:27:01Z

3

<?php
$matches = array();

preg_match_all("/highlight\([^)]*\) .*?(?= highlight|$)/", '[text 1] highlight("ABC DEF") [text 2] highlight("GHI JKL") [text 3] [text 4]', $matches);

var_dump($matches);

For explanations:

https://regex101.com/r/8ZQjNr/5

answered Nov 22, 2016 at 19:27

xate

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3 Comments

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

A faster equivalent of the same regex is highlight\([^)]*\)[^h]*(?:h(?!ighlight\([^)]*\))[^h]*)*.

xate Over a year ago

@WiktorStribiżew Great job there!:)

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

In PCRE, lazy dot matching patterns are better unrolled. As a bonus, this will match across newlines, without the DOTALL modifier.

Andreas · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-22 19:39:24Z

0

Preg_split?

preg_split("/(highlight)/", $input_line);

Try it here: http://www.phpliveregex.com/p/hYr

With PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE option it will keep highlight in the string

edited Nov 22, 2016 at 19:39

answered Nov 22, 2016 at 19:28

Andreas

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2 Comments

xate Over a year ago

Doesn't provide the output he wants.

Andreas Over a year ago

He has not showed what he wants, only what he wants to capute. If you make a regex with "highlight", you know what is missing. But sure, you can use the option PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE to keep the delimiter

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