Question

I have a working pattern

/[^\s"']+|"([^"]*)"|'([^']*)'|/ 

that splits single words or phrases (in double or single quotes) separated by a space into an matches array. I want to modify the pattern to allow “+” sign or “-” sign to appear at the beginning of the word/phrase so preg_match_all dont splits the + or – into a separate match ie:

guide -"test * of" +'guide'

I want it to split into below matches

[0] => Array
    (
        [0] => guide
        [1] => -"test * of"
        [2] => +'guide'
    )

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Try following pattern:
/[+-]?([^\s"']+|"([^"]*)"|'([^']*)')/