RegEx Overlapping String

Question

I have a string like this.

[system]a[/system][system]b[/system][system]c[/system]

I want to return values between [system] and [/system] tags.

So for this example it should return a, b, c. (with preg_match_all function in php)

I tried to use this pattern \[system\](.*)\[\/system\] but it returns a[/system][system]b[/system][system]c.

It simply takes the first opening tag and finishes with last closing tag.

How can i do this?

@degant Thanks, it worked. You should post this in answers section. — kenarsuleyman, May 26 '17 at 23:19

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 26 '17 at 23:21

1

Make your quantifier non-greedy (reluctant). Add a ? like this:

(.*?)

This will instruct the regex to match as few as possible instead of being greedy and matching as many as possible.

answered May 26 '17 at 23:21

degant

1 Answers1