Question

I have a bunch of regex within PHP, with the first clause being:

if (preg_match('#^/index#i', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) || preg_match('#^/(ACT)|(NSW)|(NT)|(QLD)|(SA)|(TAS)|(VIC)|(WA)/$#i', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])){

Now, say $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] is equal to /VIC/events/; this is for some reason matched by this first clause. Why? Shouldn’t that only match it if it was equal to /VIC/ as I added the end of line character $?

Answer 1

You need parentheses around your alternation:

'#^/(ACT|NSW|NT|QLD|SA|TAS|VIC|WA)/$#i'

Without the parentheses ^a|b|c$ means (^a)|b|(c$) which is not what you intended.