php preg_match with multiple patterns

Question

I have two patterns and i want to search them in a string. they are like this:

$pattern = '/,3$/'
$pattern = '/^1,/';

actually I want to find strings that start with 1, OR end with ,3

My strings are in this format:

a => 1,2
b => 31,2
c => 4,3

for example a and c are matches!
how can I use preg_match to check this patterns?
tanks for helps.

What do you need to match though? do you need to check either if the string starts with 1, OR ends with ,3 or do you need to extract everything which is not that? if you simply need to match, just use the or operator `|`. Else, if you need to match the rest, something like this will work: `(?=^1,(.*?)$)|(?=(.*?),3$)` — briosheje, May 12 '15 at 08:24
@MasoudNazari: then it's just this: `(^1,)|(,3$)` Test here: https://regex101.com/r/sP8bT8/1 .. ^1, asserts that the string starts with 1, literally. If it doesn't, it checks whether it ends with ,3. — briosheje, May 12 '15 at 08:28

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered May 12 '15 at 08:20

7

Try it this way

preg_match("/^1,|,3$/", $string)

answered May 12 '15 at 08:20

DigitalDouble

1,747
14
26

1

You need to use preg_match_all since match will find only 1. – Avinash Raj May 12 '15 at 08:53
2

@AvinashRaj No, that is of no importance here. It is about matching multiple patterns, not how many results to obtain. In this case the first result matching either of both patterns will be returned. That is what OP wanted. – Marki Mar 08 '20 at 15:41

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 12 '15 at 08:33

3

/(^1,)|(,3$)/ should work for you.

edited May 12 '15 at 08:33

Wiktor Stribiżew

607,720
39
448
563

answered May 12 '15 at 08:26

frenzy

1,632
3
16
18

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

Just in case some day you will need a non-regex solution, you can use the following startswith and endswith functions:

function startsWith($haystack, $needle) {
        // search backwards starting from haystack length characters from the end
        return $needle === "" || strrpos($haystack, $needle, -strlen($haystack)) !== FALSE;
    }
function endsWith($haystack, $needle) {
        // search forward starting from end minus needle length characters
        return $needle === "" || (($temp = strlen($haystack) - strlen($needle)) >= 0 && strpos($haystack, $needle, $temp) !== FALSE);
    }

if (startsWith("1,2", "1,") || endsWith("1,2", ",3"))
 echo "True1". "\n";
if (startsWith("31,2", "1,") || endsWith("31,2",",3"))
 echo "True2". "\n";
if (startsWith("4,3", "1,") || endsWith("4,3",",3"))
 echo "True3" . "\n";

Output of the IDEONE demo:

True1
True3

php preg_match with multiple patterns

3 Answers3