#21422 [Opn->Bgs]: preg_match regexps not greedy by default

ID: 21422 Updated by: gerzson@php.net Reported By: astetson@aol.com -Status: Open +Status: Bogus Bug Type: *Regular Expressions Operating System: Linux PHP Version: 4.3.0 New Comment: Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php Your script is the evidence that preg_* is greedy by default, because \w+ consumes as many characters as possible - letters and digits as well. The last digit is not used because \d+ must match at least one digit in order that the whole expression succeeds. Ask for help on the mailing list to figure out the proper regexp. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-01-05 01:37:07] astetson@aol.com Perl regexps are greedy by default. \d+ will get all decimals possible (\d+? will only find one - it's lazy). It seems preg_match is not greedy by default. code: preg_match("/^\w+(\d+)$/", $change_link, $change_id); print("My ID is $change_id[1]<BR>"); when passed: "edit11" change_id[1] is equal to "1". It should be equal to "11" especially when my regexp is looking for the end of the line ($) after it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=21422&edit=1