(a) Regex CRASH Course! (Pt. 1)

[php_wiz_kid]

Wonderful tutorial. Espcially to regex noobs like me. This got my form validation working. Good job.

[infolock]

greatest tutorial on regex on the net imo.

great job.

[Luke]

great tutorial! my only question...

One last thing before we build our first regex. Regex needs to be delimited if using Perl style regular expressions (preg_match()) which I strongly advise you do (Note: ereg_...() is not perl style).

To delimit a regex we start and end with the EXACT same character. The two standards are (but you can use most non-alphanumeric characters):
Code:

/pattern/
#pattern#

Why does it have to be delimited? What does that mean?

[twigletmac]

Why does it have to be delimited? What does that mean?

Delimiters mark the beginning and end of a pattern - if you use pattern modifiers then they would be added after the ending delimiter. The delimiter you'll probably see most often is a forward slash (/).

To delimit a regex we start and end with the EXACT same character. The two standards are (but you can use most non-alphanumeric characters):
Code:

/pattern/
#pattern#

Mac

[julian_lp]

greatest tutorial on regex on the net imo.

great job.

Absolutely true. I ask myself why I didn't find it before.

[Shendemiar]

Actually, this is best Regexp tutorial i've come across with!

I made this in notime, and just 15 minutes ago it seemed impossible!

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        # Cut out linefeeds and whitespace around them!
        $value = preg_replace("#\\s{0,}\\r\\n\\s{0,}#", "", $value);
 

I think it was not mentioned, that PHP itself, needs to escape few characters as well, like the Regexp escape character \ or ", with the php escape char: (also) \

So in other words, if your regexp is

Code: Select all

 
#\s{0,}\r\n\s{0,}#
 

in php it needs to be

Code: Select all

 
#\\s{0,}\\r\\n\\s{0,}#
 

[Chris Corbyn]

I think it was not mentioned, that PHP itself, needs to escape few characters as well, like the Regexp escape character \ or ", with the php escape char: (also) \

Well spotted ~Shendemiar That's very true. The same is true in JavaScript when creating a regexp object by using the syntax var re = new RegExp();. JavaScript is a little more friendly however since you don't need to use a string to make a pattern, you can do it literally:

Code: Select all

var re = /patterns?/; //No quotes needed so only one \ needed to escape

Perl is also friendly in this sense too:

Code: Select all

if ($string =~ /sun(?!shine)/i)
{
    print "$string contains the word "sun" but not the word "sunshine"";
}

PHP however always requires the use of a string.

[feyd]

That's why I use single quotes for my regex pattern strings.. almost all strings really.

[aqualodge]

Great tutorial ... Really helps. Your'e all experts..

[yacahuma]

This is an excellent tutorial.

http://www.webcheatsheet.com/php/regul ... sions.php

[beemzet]

This is an excellent tutorial.

http://www.webcheatsheet.com/php/regul ... sions.php

yeah, it is.

Other links:
http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/dario19990616.php3

http://www.vinuthomas.com/News/article/sid=416.html

[GeertDD]

Code: Select all

Character         Matching

. (dot)           ANY single character at all

Code: Select all

Modifier         Effect

s                Ignore whitespace

Note that the above is not quite true.

The dot metacharacter does match any single character except for newlines.

I don't know exactly what you mean by 's modifier ignores whitespace'? Anyway, the s modifier just changes the meaning of the dot metacharacter which will then match newlines as well. Agree?

[crespowu]

Great content.

[batfastad]

This is a great tutorial. I refer to it all the time.

However I think I've found one slight inaccuracy regarding the s modifier which could be updated.

I use the regex coach utility to check out what's happening, and its explanation of the s modifier is "Treat string as single line"
When I was building a regex recently, the tutorial had me wondering why it wasn't working when I used the m modifier as I didn't think the s one was for me. As soon as I switched to the s modifier after looking at that bit on the regex coach, it worked straight away.

Cheers, B

[papa]

Very nice tutorial!