How to search the text using the string wild card php

Question

I am trying to search the following text if it contains the specific link:

this my test text and it ontains the link to http://example.com/abc/files and http://example.com/def/files

I want that if I search for the link http://example.com/*/files, it should show me the text.

I tried this code but no result:

if (preg_match("/http://example.com/i", $content, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE))
{
     // Code Here
}

my question is that how i can use the wild card to search for example anything can come in place of asterisk http://example.com/*/files — Saqib, Jul 17 '17 at 17:19

Thamilhan · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-17T17:32:02.930

2

You have two options:

Escape /

if (preg_match("/http:\/\/example.com/i", $content, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE)) {

Use # instead of /

if (preg_match("#http://example.com#i", $content, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE)) {

Also to use *, you need . in Regular Expression, so like this:

if (preg_match("#http://example.com/.*/files#i", $content, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE)) {

But be sure that simple wild card will match http://example.com/abc/files and http://example.com/def/files from your string. Since, you are trying to match any character(s) between http://example.com/ and /files. So, in this case, it finds the first instance and the last instance. Trying to match all in-between! To match only the first instance, use .*?. So you have to insert two extra symbols.

edited Jul 17 '17 at 17:32

answered Jul 17 '17 at 17:18

Thamilhan

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my question is that how i can use the wild card to search for example anything can come in place of asterisk example.com*/files – Saqib Jul 17 '17 at 17:20
@Saqib Hmm. Updated at the same time! – Thamilhan Jul 17 '17 at 17:21
it worked for me. thanks – Saqib Jul 17 '17 at 17:54

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 17 '17 at 17:27

you can do like this, don't use .* it match result as http://example.com/abc/files and http://example.com/def/files use [^/]+ or .*? instead

$content = 'this my test text and it ontains the link to http://example.com/abc/files and http://example.com/def/files';

if(preg_match("#http://example.com/[^/]+/files#i", $content, $matches)) {
    echo $matches[0];
    # http://example.com/abc/files
}

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 17 '17 at 17:37

Another suggestion other than using regular expressions is fnmatch() since that can do match checks on strings as well. Supports shell wildcards

http://php.net/fnmatch

if (fnmatch("*http://example.com/*/files*", $content)) {}

There may be limitations though such as a character limit (4096? Since it's normally used on file names) and not being supported in Windows.

How to search the text using the string wild card php

3 Answers3