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Asked: 2026-05-18T02:08:59+00:00

I’m attempting to use regexp to parse a search string that from time to

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I’m attempting to use regexp to parse a search string that from time to time may contain special syntax. The syntax im looking for is [special keyword : value] and i want each match put into an array. Keep in mind that the search string will contain other text that is not intended to be parsed.

$searchString = "[StartDate:2010-11-01][EndDate:2010-11-31]";
$specialKeywords = array();
preg_match("/\[{1}.+\:{1}.+\]{1}/", $searchString, $specialKeywords);
var_dump($specialKeywords);

Output:

array(1) { [0]=> string(43) "[StartDate:2010-11-01] [EndDate:2010-11-31]" }

Desired Output:

array(2) { [0]=> string() "[StartDate:2010-11-01]"

[1]=> string() "[EndDate:2010-11-01]"}

Please let me know if i am not being clear enough.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Your .+ matches across the boundaries between the two [...] parts because it matches any character, and as many of them as possible. You could be more restrictive about which characters may be matched. Also {1} is redundant and can be dropped.

    /\[[^:]*:[^\]]*\]/

    should work more reliably.

    Explanation:

    \[     # match a [
[^:]*  # match any number of characters except :
:      # match a :
[^\]]* # match any number of characters except ]
\]     # match a ]
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