Re: ereg_replace - How do I stop it being "greedy"?

Thanks Jack, preg_replace with an s modifier works a treat. I'm still curious as to how to get ereg_replace to work as well. Everything I read about regex/Posix Regular Expressions, seems to suggest that a ? should also work with ereg_replace! George Jack Dempsey wrote: > > look into the s modifier...it makes a dot match a newline as well, where > normally it wouldn't.... > > jack > > -----Original Message----- > From: George Whiffen [mailto:george@intellnet.net.uk] > Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 1:09 PM > To: php-general@lists.php.net > Subject: [PHP] ereg_replace - How do I stop it being "greedy"? > > Hi, > > I've got a problem with regular expression syntax with ereg_replace: > > ereg_replace(':start:(.*):end:','this is \\1',':start: first :end: > middle > :start: last :end:'); > > returns - this is first :end: middle :start: last > > but I want - this is first middle this is last > > The problem seems to be that ereg_replace is being greedy on the match and > matching as much as it > can > instead of just finding the first match, handling that and then going on to > the next match. > > I can get it to work with preg_replace i.e. > > preg_replace(':start:(.*?):end:','this \\1',':start first :end: middle > :start: last :end:') > > returns - this is first middle this is last > > But my actual string is on multiple lines, and preg_replace doesn't seem to > continue trying > to match on the next line, whereas ereg_replace happily treats newlines just > like any other > character. > > So how do I stop ereg_replace being greedy or alternatively get preg_replace > to treat multiple > lines as a single source string? > > George > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net