Regex to match {@layout=xxx}

Question

I am trying to learn the behinds of template system by creating my own and I have hit a bump...

I want to setup my template as follows:

{@layout=layoutname}

{@content}
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
{@endcontent}

But I don't know how to match {@layout= and get the layout name.

I have tried: if (preg_match('/(\{\@layout=[a-z]+\})+/', $string, $matches)) { which works ... kind of. I want to check if there are more then 1 layouts loaded to prevent errors in long files and want to count how many $matches I have and return error if more then 1 match is found but instead of getting all found layouts, it returns the same layout twice:

String used:

{@layout=app} 

{@layout=main}

{@content}
    <h1>{[username]} profile</h1>
    <img src="{[photoURL]}" class="photo" alt="{[name]}" width="100" height="100"/>
    <b>Name:</b> {[name]}<br />
    <b>Age:</b> {[age]}<br />
    <b>Location:</b> {[location]}<br />
{@endcontent}

and using that expression I get:

Array ( [0] => {@layout=app} [1] => {@layout=app} )

can someone please help me find my regex?

You need to use `preg_match_all` to find multiple matches. The two items in your array point to the whole match (0) and the first capturing group (1) of the match. — Sebastian Proske, Dec 13 '16 at 14:02
Also. @SebastianProske could you please write it as an answer so I can accept it? :) — Ares Draguna, Dec 13 '16 at 14:05
Possible duplicate of [PHP preg\_match to find multiple occurrences](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2029976/php-preg-match-to-find-multiple-occurrences) — Sebastian Proske, Dec 13 '16 at 14:16

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 13 '16 at 14:13

You need to use preg_match_all to get multiple matches in the same string. In this case, you want to check the $matches[1] which will be an array of capture group results. If you have more than one layout, it will have more than one element so if that's the case you know there is more than one layout declaration.

I would also change your regex to /\{\@layout=([a-z]+)\}/ which will capture only the layout name. $matches will look like:

array(2) {
  [0]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(20) "{@layout=layoutname}"
  }
  [1]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(10) "layoutname"
  }
}

So if count($matches[1]) > 1, you know there is more than one layout declaration. Otherwise, $matches[1][0] is your layout name.

Thank you, realized it anyway :D – Ares Draguna Dec 13 '16 at 14:15 — Ares Draguna, Dec 13 '16 at 14:15

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 13 '16 at 14:13

0

Thanks to @SebastianProske I have found what I was looking for:

if (preg_match_all('/\{\@layout=([a-zA-Z0-9]+)*\}/', $string, $matches)) {

that is the correct if, that returns also the name and all the matches.

Thank you for your time, Ares D.

answered Dec 13 '16 at 14:13

Ares Draguna

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Regex to match {@layout=xxx}

2 Answers2