Re: Non-Greedy Regex Matching

Matt Henderson wrote: > > Hello, > > I'm trying to replace the contents of a custom tag <pmlink>content</pmlink> > with the following expression: > > $OUT = ereg_replace( > '<pmlink>([^<]+)</pmlink>', > $linkTemplate, > $string); > > This works except that the match is 'greedy'-- e.g. the 'content' of the > following string: > > <pmlink>Hello</pmlink> world <pmlink>again</pmlink> > > ...would incorrectly be determined as... > > Hello</pmlink> world <pmlink>again > > I tried the Perl modifier '?' as follows: > > $OUT = ereg_replace( > '<pmlink>([^<]+?)</pmlink>', > $linkTemplate, > $string); > > ...and PHP4 returned a "bad regular expression" error. Does anyone on the > list know what modifier I can use to have a non-greedy matching? > Your best bet is to take a look at pregs - the php version of perl regexs. They're covered in the manual. And if it's like the real Perl, it'll be like (?:[^<]+) the ?: is the non-greedy thingy. Also, I believe the pregs are faster. Don't know where I got that. Mike D.