PHP preg_match part of url

Question

I am trying to create a url router in PHP, that works like django's.

The problems is, I don't know php regular expressions very well.

I would like to be able to match urls like this:

/post/5/
/article/slug-goes-here/

I've got an array of regexes:

$urls = array(      
  "(^[/]$)" => "home.index",     
  "/post/(?P<post_id>\d+)/" => "home.post",    
);

The first regex in the array works to match the home page at / but I can't get the second one to work.

Here's the code I am using to match them:

foreach($urls as $regex => $mapper) {
    if (preg_match($regex, $uri, $matches)) {
    ...
    }
}

I should also note that in the example above, I am trying to match the post_id in the url: /post/5/ so that I can pass the 5 along to my method.

regexes should have proper delimiters

bcosca
– bcosca

2010-11-18 05:37:09 +00:00
Commented Nov 18, 2010 at 5:37 — bcosca
– bcosca, Commented Nov 18, 2010 at 5:37

Jess Telford · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-18 05:53:16Z

3

You must delimit the regex. Delimiting allows you to provide 'options' (such as 'i' for case insensitive matching) as part of the pattern:

,/post/(?P<post_id>\d+)/,

here, I have delimited the regex with commas.

As you have posted it, your regex was being delimited with /, which means it was treating everything after the second / as 'options', and only trying to match the "post" part.

The example you are trying to match against looks like it isn't what you're actually after based on your current regex.

If you are after a regex which will match something like;

/post/P1234/

Then, the following:

preg_match(',/post/(P\d+)/,', '/post/P1234/', $matches);
print_r($matches);

will result in:

Array
(
    [0] => /post/P1234/
    [1] => P1234
)

Hopefully that clears it up for you :)

Edit

Based on the comment to your OP, you are only trying to match a number after the /post/ part of the URL, so this slightly simplified version:

preg_match(',/post/(\d+)/,', '/post/1234/', $matches);
print_r($matches);

will result in:

Array
(
    [0] => /post/1234/
    [1] => 1234
)

answered Nov 18, 2010 at 5:53

Jess Telford

13.3k8 gold badges45 silver badges51 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

imns Over a year ago

Ahhh, you made my night, thanks! I wish I could give you 20 votes for this.

Jess Telford Over a year ago

Not a problem - delimiting the regex stung me quite a few times when I first started, and there aren't any explanations of it on php.net either!

David Conde · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-18 05:40:06Z

1

If your second RegExp is meant to match urls like /article/slug-goes-here/, then the correct regular expression is

#\/article\/[\w-]+\/#

That should do it! Im not pretty sure about having to escape the /, so you can try without escaping them. The tag Im guessing is extracted from a .NET example, because that framework uses such tags to name matching groups.

I hope I can be of help!

answered Nov 18, 2010 at 5:40

David Conde

4,6472 gold badges37 silver badges48 bronze badges

Comments

z.l · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-31 13:44:46Z

1

php 5.2.2: Named subpatterns now accept the syntax (?<name>) and (?'name') as well as (?P<name>). Previous versions accepted only (?P<name>).

http://php.net/manual/fr/function.preg-match.php

answered Aug 31, 2011 at 13:44

z.l

111 bronze badge

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP preg_match part of url

3 Answers 3

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related