Regex-function adds second occurance of pattern to first one

Asked May 10 '18 at 16:25

Active May 10 '18 at 16:25

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The preg_match_all()-function should find all occurances of this /\]\(.*.md\)/-Expression, it does, but somehow it detects multiple matches just as one. My input looks like this:

[example](foo/random/link.md) | [example2](other/some.md)
Lorem ipsum.....
[example3](foo/Readme.md)

It should match the three examples-links. But it returns:

Array[0] -> ](foo/random/link.md) | [example2](other/some.md)
Array[1] -> ](../Readme.md)

Although example2 should also be found. I am quite confident it is a problem with the use of .*, but I was not able to come up with something better.

P.S.: For better understanding. I am writing a php-script that translates links from markdown docs to links that are relative to the php-scripts position in the filesystem.

asked May 10 '18 at 16:25

try changing it to `.*?` – Matt.G May 10 '18 at 16:38
Also, there should be `\ ` before `.md`. the modified regex should be `/\]\(.*?\.md\)/` – Matt.G May 10 '18 at 16:46
@Matt.G Thanks! It worked. From now on more regex-reading for me – May 10 '18 at 17:11
As matt probably *should* have explained, the `?` makes the `*` matching "un-greedy" so that it stops sooner [at the first `)`] rather than later. [at the last `)`] – Sammitch May 10 '18 at 18:04

Regex-function adds second occurance of pattern to first one

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