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I know how to use preg_match and preg_match_all to find the actual matches of regex patterns in a given string, but the function that I am writing not only needs the text of the matches, but to be able to traverse the string AROUND the matches...
Therefore, I need to know the position of the match in the string, based on a regex pattern.
I can't seem to find a function similar to strpos() that allows regex...any ideas?
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The search() function searches the string for a match, and returns a Match object if there is a match.
\\. matches the literal character . . the first backslash is interpreted as an escape character by the Emacs string reader, which combined with the second backslash, inserts a literal backslash character into the string being read. the regular expression engine receives the string \.
i) makes the regex case insensitive. (? s) for "single line mode" makes the dot match all characters, including line breaks.
To match a character having special meaning in regex, you need to use a escape sequence prefix with a backslash ( \ ). E.g., \. matches "." ; regex \+ matches "+" ; and regex \( matches "(" . You also need to use regex \\ to match "\" (back-slash).
You can use the flag PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE for that:
preg_match('/bar/', 'Foobar', $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE); var_export($matches); Result is:
array ( 0 => array ( 0 => 'bar', 1 => 3, // <-- the string offset of the match ), ) In a previous version, this answer included a capture group in the regular expression (preg_match('/(bar)/', ...)). As evident in the first few comments, this was confusing to some and has since been edited out by @Mikkel. Please ignore these comments.
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preg_match has an optional flag, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, that records the string position of the match's occurence in the original 'haystack'. See the 'flags' section: http://php.net/preg_match
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