PHP Regex, get multiple value with preg_match

Question

I have this text string:

$text="::tower_unit::7::/tower_unit::<br/>::tower_unit::8::/tower_unit::<br/>::tower_unit::9::/tower_unit::";

Now I want to get the value of 7,8, and 9 how to do that in preg_match_all ?

I've tried this:

$pattern="/::tower_unit::(.*)::\/tower_unit::/i";
preg_match($pattern,$text,$matches);

print_r($matches);

but it still all wrong...

dorsh · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-23 08:52:30Z

5

You forgot to escape the slash in your pattern. Since your pattern includes slashes, it's easier to use a different regex delimiter, as suggested in the comments:

$pattern="@::tower_unit::(\d+)::/tower_unit::@"; 
preg_match_all($pattern,$text,$matches);

I also converted (.*) to (\d+), which is better if the token you're looking for will always be a number. Plus, you might want to lose the i modifier if the text is always lower cased.

edited Jan 23, 2012 at 8:52

answered Jan 23, 2012 at 8:21

dorsh

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5 Comments

mpen Over a year ago

I never really understood why people insist on using / as the start/end character, especially when it's used in the pattern itself.

Tim Pietzcker Over a year ago

@Mark: If you come from a JavaScript or Ruby background (where the slash is the only possible delimiter), you might not expect that you can freely choose your delimiter in PHP/Perl.

dorsh Over a year ago

@Mark I'm guessing most don't know you can use a different character, as almost all the popular PHP examples for some reason use /

Viktor Over a year ago

@Mark i agree with Dor... i never realize i can use different character.. in my 7 years using php, i just realize it.. how ironic..

mpen Over a year ago

@Viktor: Well I'm glad I taught you something new then ;) It can be quite handy sometimes. URLs come to mind.

Cheery · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-23 09:08:27Z

0

Your regex is "greedy". Use the following one

$pattern="#::tower_unit::(.*?)::/tower_unit::#i";

or

$pattern="#::tower_unit::(.*)::/tower_unit::#iU";

and, if you wish, \d+ instead of .*? or .*

the function should be preg_match_all

answered Jan 23, 2012 at 9:08

Cheery

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2 Comments

Viktor Over a year ago

btw, could you give reference what 'U' means in the last character of pattern... what possible between i and U

Cheery Over a year ago

@Viktor U means "ungreedy", without it .* will get everything until the last match. Without modificator U .*? can be used. i means "case-insensitive", so [a-z] is the same as [a-zA-Z] or any words in regexp will not depend on the case. Read here php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.modifiers.php

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