8

This is a really simple problem, but I couldn't find a solution anywhere.

I'm try to use preg_match or preg_match_all to obtain a string from within parentheses, but without the parentheses.

So far, my expression looks like this:

\([A-Za-z0-9 ]+\)

and returns the following result:

3(hollow highlight) 928-129 (<- original string)

(hollow highlight) (<- result)

What i want is the string within parentheses, but without the parentheses. It would look like this:

hollow highlight

I could probably replace the parentheses afterwards with str_replace or something, but that doesn't seem to be a very elegant solution to me.

What do I have to add, so the parentheses aren't included in the result?

Thanks for your help, you guys are great! :)

Macy Abbey
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Macks
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  • What you're calling brackets are actually parentheses. – JohnK Jul 24 '15 at 21:51
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    Possible duplicate of [PHP: Best way to extract text within parenthesis?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/196520/php-best-way-to-extract-text-within-parenthesis) – EdChum Dec 19 '17 at 09:18

2 Answers2

26

try:

preg_match('/\((.*?)\)/', $s, $a);

output:

Array
(
    [0] => (hollow highlight)
    [1] => hollow highlight
)
Piotr Olaszewski
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18

You just need to add capturing parenthesis, in addition to your escaped parenthesis.

<?php
    $in = "hello (world), my name (is andrew) and my number is (845) 235-0184";
    preg_match_all('/\(([A-Za-z0-9 ]+?)\)/', $in, $out);
    print_r($out[1]);
?>

This outputs:

Array ( [0] => world [1] => is andrew [2] => 845 )
DOOManiac
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Andrew Cheong
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  • Thanks for your answer. This works great (besides the escaped backslashes). But how do brackets help? I thought my expression was read like this: "an open bracket followed by amount of chars that consist of letters, numbers and spaces, followed by a closed bracket". How do the (non-escaped-)brackets come into play here? Thank you for your help! :) – Macks Jun 28 '12 at 20:43
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    Oops, sorry about the escaped backslashes; fixed now. Non-escaped brackets have a special meaning: capture. See, by default, the entire match is captured into ``[0]``, which is why ``$out[0]`` contains everything, even the brackets you don't want. Each ``()`` capture, well, _captures_ whatever's in between them, and stores them in sequential array indices, i.e. ``[1]``, ``[2]``, ``[3]``, etc. For example, if your string is "abc123def456" and your regex is ``/abc(\d+)(\w+)(\d)(\d+)/``, your captures would be like so: ``[1]`` = "123", ``[2]`` = "def", ``[3]`` = "4", and ``[4]`` = "56". – Andrew Cheong Jun 28 '12 at 21:09
  • The difference between ``preg_match`` and ``preg_match_all`` is that the latter will, as the name suggests, match all, so that there will be an array within the array: ``[1] = { "world", "is andrew", "845" }``. – Andrew Cheong Jun 28 '12 at 21:11
  • Thank you acheong87. I tried reading it up myself, but I didn't get it. Your explanation however was great, I understand now. Thank you very much! :) – Macks Jun 28 '12 at 21:48