regexp

[Walter Kerelitsch]

hi folks.

I'm in trouble
PHP on apache:

$such =array('/a*d/');
$ersetz=array(' ersetz ');
echo "before!!!! $filestream"; // -->
abcdefghi abcdefghi
$filestream=preg_replace($such, $ersetz, $filestream);
echo "after !!!! $filestream"; // --abc
ersetz efghi abc ersetz efghi

but I'm expecting:
ersetzefghi ersetzefghi

where's my error?
tia
walter

[Christoph Burschka]

Walter Kerelitsch wrote:

hi folks.

I'm in trouble
PHP on apache:

$such =array('/a*d/');
$ersetz=array(' ersetz ');
echo "before!!!! $filestream"; // --
abcdefghi abcdefghi
$filestream=preg_replace($such, $ersetz, $filestream);
echo "after !!!! $filestream"; // --abc
ersetz efghi abc ersetz efghi

but I'm expecting:
ersetzefghi ersetzefghi

where's my error?
tia
walter

Hello Walter,

The asterisk (*), in regular expressions, is not the wildcard character you are
trying to use. It indicates that the preceding character can be repeated any
number of times (even 0 times).

So /a*d/ will match these: "d", "ad", "aad", "aaad", etc. In your case, it
matched and replaced only the "d", leading to what you see.

What you are trying to do requires the regular expression /a.*?d/. The period
(.) matches any single character, like "abd" or "acd". ".*" means any number of
unspecified characters, like "abcd" or "abcdefghi abcd".

The question mark means that it should try to match as few characters as
possible ("non-greedy" search). /a.*d/ may replace "abcdefghi abcd" all at once,
which you don't want - /a.*?d/ makes sure that the matching stops at the first
"d" that is encountered.

--Christoph

PS: If you expect "ersetzefghi", then of course the replacement string has to be
' ersetz', not ' ersetz ' like it is now. :)

--
"Omniscient? No, not I; but well-informed."
----------------------
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Key: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?...rch=0x55A52A2A
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[Myron Turner]

Christoph Burschka wrote:

Walter Kerelitsch wrote:

>hi folks.

I'm in trouble
PHP on apache:

$such =array('/a*d/');
$ersetz=array(' ersetz ');
echo "before!!!! $filestream"; // -->
abcdefghi abcdefghi
$filestream=preg_replace($such, $ersetz, $filestream);
echo "after !!!! $filestream"; // --abc
ersetz efghi abc ersetz efghi

but I'm expecting:
ersetzefghi ersetzefghi

where's my error?
tia
walter

Hello Walter,

The asterisk (*), in regular expressions, is not the wildcard character you are
trying to use. It indicates that the preceding character can be repeated any
number of times (even 0 times).

So /a*d/ will match these: "d", "ad", "aad", "aaad", etc. In your case, it
matched and replaced only the "d", leading to what you see.

What you are trying to do requires the regular expression /a.*?d/. The period
(.) matches any single character, like "abd" or "acd". ".*" means any number of
unspecified characters, like "abcd" or "abcdefghi abcd".

The question mark means that it should try to match as few characters as
possible ("non-greedy" search). /a.*d/ may replace "abcdefghi abcd" all at once,
which you don't want - /a.*?d/ makes sure that the matching stops at the first
"d" that is encountered.

--Christoph

PS: If you expect "ersetzefghi", then of course the replacement string has to be
' ersetz', not ' ersetz ' like it is now. :)

Also, you don't need the arrays for this. peg_replace will replace all
instances of regex.

M. Turner

[Walter Kerelitsch]

thanks a lot, christoph and myron!

I had a complete misunderstanding of regexp, thought that simple
substitutions are also simple here...

I'm not really firm witth regex, so I will visit this group later again...

@Myron: I want to expand this little proggy to make *a lot of* replacements,
so I began with an array...

greetings walter


"Walter Kerelitsch" <je****@microisoft.comschrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:65**************************@news.chello.at.. .

hi folks.

I'm in trouble
PHP on apache:

$such =array('/a*d/');
$ersetz=array(' ersetz ');
echo "before!!!! $filestream"; // -->
abcdefghi abcdefghi
$filestream=preg_replace($such, $ersetz, $filestream);
echo "after !!!! $filestream"; // --abc
ersetz efghi abc ersetz efghi

but I'm expecting:
ersetzefghi ersetzefghi

where's my error?
tia
walter