Question

I’ve got some bad MySQL entries that I need to fix. I’m trying to do so in PHP.

What I’ve got:

a whole bunch of text with no numbers Entry #:2439. a whole bunch of text Click here to blah blah blah

What I want:

a whole bunch of text with no numbers Entry #:2439. a whole bunch of text <BR><A href='somepage.php?entry_no=2439'>Click here to blah blah blah</A>

My PHP code:

$fixed = preg_replace('/(.*)(\d*)(.*)(Click here.*)/i','$1$2$3<BR><A href=\'somepage.php?entry_no=$2\'>$4</A>',$originalData); 

For some reason, this is what I get:

a whole bunch of text with no numbers Entry #:2439. a whole bunch of text <BR><A href='somepage.php?entry_no='>Click here to blah blah blah</A>

The $2 is not giving me the number the second time. Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

It’s because the first match is being greedy:

Given this input, here’s what each part is matching:

a whole bunch of text with no numbers Entry #: 2439. a whole bunch of text Click here to blah blah blah  (.*)    // 'a whole bunch of text with no numbers Entry #: 2439. a whole bunch of text ' (\d*)   // '' (0 or more numbers) (.*)    // '' (0 or more characters) 

All you have to do is make the first match non-greedy:

(.*?)(\d+)(.*)(Click here.*) 

Also, since you’re defining the regex inside a string, you need to escape your slashes:

'/(.*?)(\\d*) ...