preg_replace with (.*) doesn't work

Question

I would like to replace a string like

title="CONTSTANTWORD fnwif 740933840 j iowej902 ijofiowi CONTSTANTWORD"

with

id="detectLink"

The word CONTSTANTWORD is, surprisingly, constant. The rest,

fnwif 740933840 j iowej902 ijofiowi

is variable.

I found this answer, so I edited the code to this:

$html = preg_replace('title="CONTSTANTWORD (.*) CONTSTANTWORD"','id="detectLink"',$string);

But unfortunately, this doesn't work. Does anyone know what my preg_replace code should look like?

Edit: this is the error I get:

Warning: preg_replace() [function.preg-replace]: Delimiter must not be alphanumeric or backslash in ..... on line 8

try setting back references around the expression `/EXPRESSION_HERE/` — Samuel Cook, Feb 21 '14 at 16:32
possible duplicate of [PHP using preg\_replace : "Delimiter must not be alphanumeric or backslash" error.](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2527657/php-using-preg-replace-delimiter-must-not-be-alphanumeric-or-backslash-error) — Toto, Feb 22 '14 at 10:31

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 21 '14 at 16:35

$test = 'title="CONTSTANTWORD fnwif 740933840 j iowej902 ijofiowi CONTSTANTWORD"';
$html = preg_replace('#title="CONTSTANTWORD (.*) CONTSTANTWORD"#','id="detectLink"',$test);
var_dump($html);

Outputs

string(15) "id="detectLink""

You need to put a delimiter around your regex

preg_replace with (.*) doesn't work

1 Answers1