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preg_match

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:44 pm
by igeoffi
if i have a pattern for preg_match, would it be possible to figure out the string from the pattern
example:

Code: Select all

if(preg_match('/\\A(\\w{6})-\\w{6}-\\w{6}\\z/', $variable, $v2)
how would i figure out what string matches this pattern?

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:51 pm
by Jenk
That given pattern would match (at a glance) the following:

"\A\wwwwww-\wwwwww-\wwwwww\z"

I think, as I am still new to regex.

EDIT: Tested, no it doesn't.

Anyway, you have escaped the slashes so it wouldn't be looking for words I would have thought?

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:00 pm
by redmonkey
it means the complete string must be..

Any 6 word characters followed by a dash followed by any 6 word characters followed by a dash followed by any 6 word characters

And that must be the complete string.

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:01 pm
by Jenk
But he has escaped the slashes..

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:03 pm
by redmonkey
Correct, that's to stop PHP interpreting/stripping the slashes that should be getting passed to the regex engine.

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:32 pm
by igeoffi
Any 6 word characters followed by a dash followed by any 6 word characters followed by a dash followed by any 6 word characters

And that must be the complete string.
what part of it tells me that its any character
and im assuming that

Code: Select all

w{6}-
is that part that tells me that its 6 characters?

and reading from the php website (which im still confused)
$variable in my first post would be the string that is checked to see if it matches the pattern
and $v2
would be i have no clue

and what does the a and z mean in it?
or is it jus gibberish?