Get strings which are inside double braces

Question

I have a string where some part of the string is inside braces, and I would like to get them in an array.

The string is for example: Lorem {{ipsum}} dolor sit amet, {{consectetur}} adipiscing elit.

And I would like to get: array("ipsum", "consectetur")

I tried this:

$regExp = "/\{\{([^)]+)\}\}/";
$result = preg_grep($regExp, array("Lorem {{ipsum}} dolor sit amet, {{consectetur}} adipiscing elit."));

but I get back the given string as result

use this regex `\{\{\K[^{}]*(?=}})` in `preg_match_all` function. http://regex101.com/r/hQ9dW1/1 — Avinash Raj, Nov 05 '14 at 16:07

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 05 '14 at 16:11

0

You are using the wrong function, you should use preg_match_all().

You should also use lazy instead of greedy matching to avoid the result being ipsum}} dolor sit amet, {{consectetur. You can do that by adding a ? after your quantifier:

$regExp = "/\{\{([^)]+?)\}\}/";
                      ^ here
preg_match_all($regExp, "Lorem {{ipsum}} dolor sit amet, {{consectetur}} adipiscing elit.",
               $result);

var_dump($result);

A working example.

answered Nov 05 '14 at 16:11

jeroen

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It's quite similar to my solution... Just a question: why do you need the [^)] part? Why do you want to exclude a closing parenthesis? – Tibor B. Nov 05 '14 at 16:14
@TiborB. Actually, you don't need it. In this case `.+?` would do just as well as `[^)]+?`. However, I assume the OP uses it for a reason so I copied his expression to avoid breaking other stuff we don't see here. – jeroen Nov 05 '14 at 16:16
Ahh, okay. I thought I was missing something. – Tibor B. Nov 05 '14 at 16:32

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 05 '14 at 16:12

Use preg_match_all() instead of preg_grep

$str = 'Lorem {{ipsum}} dolor sit amet, {{consectetur}} adipiscing elit';
preg_match_all('!\{(\w+)\}!', $str, $m);
$result = array_map(function($v){return trim($v, '{}');},$m[0]);

print '<pre>';
print_r($result);
print '</pre>';

Get strings which are inside double braces

2 Answers2