First of all, as per extensive discussion on the list, the functions are now
prefixed with "preg" instead of "pcre".
Secondly, global matching is now possible using preg_match_all. Please, give
suggestions on a better name if this one doesn't sit well with you. Possible
names are preg_global_match and preg_gmatch.
preg_match_all takes 4 arguments: a regex pattern, a subject string,
the array for capturing subpatterns, and a parameter that tells how the results
in the subpatterns array are arranged.
Basically, preg_match_all will go through the subject string and try to capture
all the matches that it finds, not just the first one like preg_match.
4th parameter can be PREG_PATTERN_ORDER (default) or PREG_SET_ORDER.
Example:
preg_match_all("|</?([^>]+)>|", "<div align=left>a test</div>", $out, PREG_PATTERN_ORDER);
This returns results so that $out[0] is an array of full pattern matches, $out[1] is an array
of first captured subpattern matches, and so on.
$out[0] -> ("<div align=left>", "</div>")
$out[1] -> ("div align=left", "div")
Example:
preg_match_all("|</?([^>]+)>|", "<div align=left>a test</div>", $out, PREG_SET_ORDER);
This returns results so that $out[0] is an array of first full pattern match and subpatterns,
$out[1] is an array of second full pattern match and subpatterns.
$out[0] -> ("<div align=left>", "div align=left")
$out[1] -> ("</div>", "div")
If anyone has a better name for these PREG_ constants and also which one should be the default,
I'd like to hear it.
PCRE library can be found at ftp://ftp.cus.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programs/pcre/
config.m4 will be updated to be more robust later on.
perl_match() takes a regular expression, the source string, and the array
for subpattern matches.
perl_replace() takes a regular expression, the search string, and the replacement
string.
Regular expression is specified using delimiters and options. Example:
perl_match("/<[a-z]*>/i", $text, $tags);
More stuff is coming soon.
