preg_match returns weird result

Question

I need to extract text in curly braces but only if the first word within them is a "allowed" word. for example the following text:

awesome text,
a new line {find this braces},
{find some more} in the next line.
Please {dont find} this ones.

in this simple example "find" stands for a allowed word

my attemp:

$pattern        = '!{find(.*)}!is';
$matches        = array();
preg_match_all( $pattern, $text, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER );

returns a weird result (print_r):

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => {find this braces},
    {find some more} in the next line.
    Please {dont find}
            [1] =>  this braces},
    {find some more} in the next line.
    Please {dont find
        )

)

while working fine without the "find" in the pattern (but then the one with "dont" is found, too.

What may be the cause for this?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 26 '13 at 18:18

3

.* would match greedily i.e as much as possible.Use .*? to match lazily i.e as less as possible

So your regex would be

!{find(.*?)}!is

Alternatively you can use [^{}] instead of .*?..In that case you don't need to use singleline mode

!{find([^{}]*)}!i

answered Oct 26 '13 at 18:18

Anirudha

32,393
7
68
89

you are faster than me :p – Eathen Nutt Oct 26 '13 at 18:19
@nut I guess I was the first one to see this question..;) – Anirudha Oct 26 '13 at 18:21

preg_match returns weird result

1 Answers1