PHP - matching to all exist phrases in text - preg_replace

Question

Here is my text:

$msg_text = '[quote]TEXT[/quote]';

and my preg_replace:

$msg_text = preg_replace('#\[quote\](.*?)\[\/quote\]#is', '"$1"'."\r\n", $msg_text);

And it works fine. But what when my text is looking like that:

$msg_text = '[quote]TEXT [quote]TEXT[/quote][/quote]';

?? My preg_replace doesn't work on this example. How I can replcace this text in all instances ?

Tᴀʀᴇǫ Mᴀʜᴍᴏᴏᴅ · Answer 1 · 2015-12-15T13:44:53.563

1

Just remove the ? after .* which will remove the laziness of your pattern.

'#\[quote\](.*)\[\/quote\]#is'

What is Laziness in Regex?

Patterns like .* and .+ normally greedy, which means they will try to match as long as they can. Putting an extra ? after it we tell it to become lazy, so it will take only nearest / shortest match. So, if you remove that, it will work as it's normal way.

Note: Other use of ? is to make the previous item optional, which is not the case here, because by using * you are making that part optional already.

Learn more from here : http://www.regular-expressions.info/repeat.html

edited Dec 15 '15 at 13:44

answered Dec 15 '15 at 13:36

Tᴀʀᴇǫ Mᴀʜᴍᴏᴏᴅ

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Won't removing the `?` make `[quote]foo[/quote]...[quote]bar[/quote]` -> `foo[/quote]...[quote]bar`? – kero Dec 15 '15 at 13:53
@kingkero How? I don't get you! Can you pls clarify a bit more? – Tᴀʀᴇǫ Mᴀʜᴍᴏᴏᴅ Dec 15 '15 at 13:55
See [yours](https://regex101.com/r/pC7jJ4/1) and [OPs](https://regex101.com/r/pC7jJ4/2) – kero Dec 15 '15 at 13:57
Yes, That's what it will match and that's what he is trying to replace. – Tᴀʀᴇǫ Mᴀʜᴍᴏᴏᴅ Dec 15 '15 at 14:01
No. OP is asking about nested tags (one inside the other). I posted an example with two tags after another – kero Dec 15 '15 at 14:03
Yes, I see the nested tags. But I think he is trying to replace the whole thing inside the parent tag. Let's wait for OP's response here. – Tᴀʀᴇǫ Mᴀʜᴍᴏᴏᴅ Dec 15 '15 at 14:06

PHP - matching to all exist phrases in text - preg_replace

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