How do I preg_match for words in Hebrew

Question

I need a function that matches full words in hebrew in php.

Please help.

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 13 '11 at 18:10

8

Try this regular expression describing Unicode character properties:

/\p{Hebrew}+/u

edited Nov 13 '11 at 18:10

NullUserException

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answered Dec 16 '09 at 18:31

Gumbo

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@Haim Bender: You need to set the *u* modifier. – Gumbo Dec 16 '09 at 18:57
Where is the `\p{Hebrew}` shortcut described? I've never seen that before. – troelskn Dec 16 '09 at 20:59

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 16 '09 at 18:44

5

Assuming your source data is UTF-8 encoded

$input = "ט״סת תעסתינג O״ת סOמע העברעו תעחת";

preg_match_all( "/[\\x{0590}-\\x{05FF}]+/u", $input, $matches );

echo '<pre>';
print_r( $matches );
echo '</pre>';

Yields

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => ט״סת
            [1] => תעסתינג
            [2] => ״ת
            [3] => ס
            [4] => מע
            [5] => העברעו
            [6] => תעחת
        )

)

I based the range of 0590 through 05FF on this Unicode chart (edit: found more good hebrew/unicode info here). I used this to generate my sample input. Since I don't know hebrew I can't actually verify that the matched output is valid.

You may need to tweak it but hopefully this gets you headed in the right direction.

answered Dec 16 '09 at 18:44

Peter Bailey

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i just need to check if a string is one single word in Hebrew, do I need to specify start and end of string in the regex? How can I implement this? – Haim Bender Dec 16 '09 at 18:56
Yeah, I suppose that would work - again I'm not going to pretend to understand the grammar of Hebrew. – Peter Bailey Dec 16 '09 at 19:13
@PeterBailey It is possible to use it in my php script? http://www.iosart.com/nlp/heb_enc_dec.html – shmoolki May 04 '16 at 09:42

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 16 '09 at 20:15

2

Thanks for all your answers,

The one that works for me is preg_match("/^\p{Hebrew}+$/u", "שלום");

answered Dec 16 '09 at 20:15

Haim Bender

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How do I preg_match for words in Hebrew

3 Answers3

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