Php – Delimiter must not be alphanumeric or backslash and preg_match

PHPpreg-matchregex

I have this code :

$string1 = "My name is 'Kate' and im fine"; 
$pattern = "My name is '(.*)' and im fine"; 
preg_match($pattern , $string1, $matches);
echo $matches[1];

and when im run it returns this error:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Delimiter must not be alphanumeric or backslash

Best Answer

You need a delimiter for your pattern. It should be added at the start and end of the pattern like so:

$pattern = "/My name is '(.*)' and im fine/";  // With / as a delimeter

Related Solutions

Php – Reference — What does this symbol mean in PHP

Incrementing / Decrementing Operators

++ increment operator

-- decrement operator

Example    Name              Effect
---------------------------------------------------------------------
++$a       Pre-increment     Increments $a by one, then returns $a.
$a++       Post-increment    Returns $a, then increments $a by one.
--$a       Pre-decrement     Decrements $a by one, then returns $a.
$a--       Post-decrement    Returns $a, then decrements $a by one.

These can go before or after the variable.

If put before the variable, the increment/decrement operation is done to the variable first then the result is returned. If put after the variable, the variable is first returned, then the increment/decrement operation is done.

For example:

$apples = 10;
for ($i = 0; $i < 10; ++$i) {
    echo 'I have ' . $apples-- . " apples. I just ate one.\n";
}

Live example

In the case above ++$i is used, since it is faster. $i++ would have the same results.

Pre-increment is a little bit faster because it really increments the variable and after that 'returns' the result. Post-increment creates a special variable, copies there the value of the first variable and only after the first variable is used, replaces its value with second's.

However, you must use $apples--, since first, you want to display the current number of apples, and then you want to subtract one from it.

You can also increment letters in PHP:

$i = "a";
while ($i < "c") {
    echo $i++;
}

Once z is reached aa is next, and so on.

Note that character variables can be incremented but not decremented and even so only plain ASCII characters (a-z and A-Z) are supported.

Stack Overflow Posts:

Understanding Incrementing

PHP regular expressions: No ending delimiter ‘^’ found in

PHP regex strings need delimiters. Try:

$numpattern="/^([0-9]+)$/";

Also, note that you have a lower case o, not a zero. In addition, if you're just validating, you don't need the capturing group, and can simplify the regex to /^\d+$/.

Example: http://ideone.com/Ec3zh

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Php – Reference — What does this symbol mean in PHP

PHP regular expressions: No ending delimiter ‘^’ found in

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