ereg

Synopsis

Returns

FALSE if no match is found; otherwise, the length of the full match if the matches parameter is specified or 1 if it's not specified

Description

Searches a string for a regular expression according to the specified POSIX regex pattern. If the matches parameter is supplied, it should be a valid variable, such as $matches, since the function forces it to be passed by reference. Existing contents of this variable are overwritten with the results of the successful search. $matches[0] contains the text from the subject string that matched the full pattern. $matches[1] through $matches[9] contain the pieces of the subject string matching the parenthesized subpatterns, even though more or fewer than nine parenthesized subpatterns may actually have matched. Subpatterns 10 and above are discarded silently. If no matches are found, matches is not altered by this function.

The eregi() function works in the same manner but isn't case-sensitive. This function uses the POSIX regular expression syntax, not to be confused with the Perl regular expression syntax.

See also

See also eregi() , preg_match() , preg_match_all()

Example

$string = "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog";
if (!ereg("Quick Brown",$string)) {
   echo "Didn't find the pattern in '$string'.\n";
}
else {
   echo "Found the pattern.\n";
}
if (!ereg("([qQ]uick [bB]rown)",$string,$part)) {
   echo "Didn't find the patten in '$string'.\n";
}
else {
   echo "Found $part[1].\n";
}