How do I check if a String contains the same letter twice consecutively in php?

Question

I don't see why my code doesn't work, any suggestions?

$pattern_c_sap='/\.\-/';
$local='.................';
$local_array = explode( '', $local );

for($i=0; $i<=$local_length; $i++){
if(preg_match($pattern_c_sap , $local_array[$i]) && preg_match($pattern_c_sap , $local_array[$i+1])) {
    return false;
}
}

I had the following errors: The regex should be

[/\.\-/]

and I should have used str_split instead of explode when splitting for each letter.

Answer 1

You can use a preg_match like below:

if(preg_match('/(.)\1/', $local, $match){
    echo "contains consecutive characters";
}

(.) captures a character.

\1 refers to the captured character.

So, if you have AA, the (.) captures A and \1 will mean A. So the regex will be checking for AA.