Old link to Oniguruma regex syntax is not working anymore, there is a working one:
https://github.com/geoffgarside/oniguruma/blob/master/Syntax.txt
(PHP 4 >= 4.2.0, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
mb_ereg — Comparación de expresiones regulares con soporte multibyte
$pattern
, string $string
, array &$regs
= ?): intEjecuta la comparación de expresiones regulares con soporte multibyte.
pattern
El patrón de búsqueda.
string
El string de búsqueda.
regs
Contiene un substring del string comparado.
Ejecuta la comparación de expresiones regulares
con soporte multibyte, y devuelve 1
si se encontraron coincidencias.
Si se especificó el parámetro opcional regs
, la función
devolverá la longitud en bytes de la parte comparada, y el array
regs
contendrá el substring del string
comparado. La función devuelve 1
si coincide con el string
vacío. Si no se encontraron coincidencias u ocurrió un error, devolverá
false
.
Nota:
La codificación interna o la codificación especificada por mb_regex_encoding() será usada en esta función.
Old link to Oniguruma regex syntax is not working anymore, there is a working one:
https://github.com/geoffgarside/oniguruma/blob/master/Syntax.txt
Note that mb_ereg() does not support the \uFFFF unicode syntax but uses \x{FFFF} instead:
<?PHP
$text = 'Peter is a boy.'; // english
$text = 'بيتر هو صبي.'; // arabic
//$text = 'פיטר הוא ילד.'; // hebrew
mb_regex_encoding('UTF-8');
if(mb_ereg('[\x{0600}-\x{06FF}]', $text)) // arabic range
//if(mb_ereg('[\x{0590}-\x{05FF}]', $text)) // hebrew range
{
echo "Text has some arabic/hebrew characters.";
}
else
{
echo "Text doesnt have arabic/hebrew characters.";
}
?>
One of the differences between preg_match() & mb_ereg()
about "captured parenthesized subpattern".
<?php
preg_match('/(abc)(.*)/', 'abc', $match);
var_dump($match);
mb_ereg('(abc)(.*)', 'abc', $match);
var_dump($match);
?>
array(3) {
[0]=>
string(3) "abc"
[1]=>
string(3) "abc"
[2]=>
string(0) "" // <-- "string"(0) "" : preg_match()
}
array(3) {
[0]=>
string(3) "abc"
[1]=>
string(3) "abc"
[2]=>
bool(false) // <-- "bool"(false) : mb_ereg()
}
If adding ".*" at the end of the pattern returns "false"
whereas only one "." returns "true",
Suspect the string is too long for the pattern matching.
In this case, using preg_match() returns "true" when putting ".*"
, but adding more "$" or "\z" returns "false" as expected.
mb_ereg() with a named-subpattern
never catches non-named-subpattern.
(Oniguruma's restriction)
<?php
$str = 'abcdefg';
$patternA = '\A(abcd)(.*)\z'; // both caught [1]abcd [2]efg
$patternB = '\A(abcd)(?<rest>.*)\z'; // non-named 'abcd' never caught
mb_ereg($patternA, $str, $match);
echo '<pre>'.print_r($match, true).'</pre>';
mb_ereg($patternB, $str, $match);
echo '<pre>'.print_r($match, true).'</pre>';
?>
Array
(
[0] => abcdefg
[1] => abcd
[2] => efg
)
Array
(
[0] => abcdefg
[1] => efg
[rest] => efg
)
<?php
# What mb_ereg() returns & changes $_3rd_argument into
# (Just run this script)
function dump2str($var) {
ob_start();
var_dump($var);
$output = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
return $output;
}
# (PHP7)empty pattern returns bool(false) with Warning
# (PHP8)empty pattern throws ValueError
$emp_ptn = '';
try{
$emp_ptn.= dump2str(mb_ereg('', 'abcde'));
}catch(Exception | Error $e){
$emp_ptn.= get_class($e).'<br>';
$emp_ptn.= $e->getMessage();
$emp_ptn.= '<pre>'.$e->getTraceAsString().'</pre>';
}
echo
'PHP '.phpversion().'<br><br>'.
'# match<br>'.
dump2str(mb_ereg("bcd", "abcde")).
' : mb_ereg("bcd", "abcde")<br><br>'.
'# match with 3rd argument<br>'.
dump2str(mb_ereg("bcd", "abcde", $_3rd)).
' : mb_ereg("bcd", "abcde", $_3rd) // '.dump2str($_3rd).'<br><br>'.
'# match (0 byte)<br>'.
dump2str(mb_ereg("^", "abcde")).
' : mb_ereg("^", "abcde")<br><br>'.
'# match (0 byte) with 3rd argument<br>'.
dump2str(mb_ereg("^", "abcde", $_3rd)).
' : mb_ereg("^", "abcde", $_3rd) // '.dump2str($_3rd).'<br><br>'.
'# unmatch<br>'.
dump2str(mb_ereg("f", "abcde")).
' : mb_ereg("f", "abcde")<br><br>'.
'# unmatch with 3rd argument<br>'.
dump2str(mb_ereg("f", "abcde", $_3rd)).
' : mb_ereg("f", "abcde", $_3rd) // '.dump2str($_3rd).'<br><br>'.
'# empty pattern<br>'.
$emp_ptn.
' : mb_ereg("", "abcde")<br><br>'.
'# empty pattern with 3rd argument<br>'.
$emp_ptn.
' : mb_ereg("", "abcde", $_3rd) // '.dump2str($_3rd).'<br><br>';
?>
I hope this information is shown somewhere on php.net.
According to "https://github.com/php/php-src/tree/PHP-5.6/ext/mbstring/oniguruma",
the bundled Oniguruma regex library version seems ...
4.7.1 between PHP 5.3 - 5.4.45,
5.9.2 between PHP 5.5 - 7.1.16,
6.3.0 since PHP 7.2 - .
mb_ereg() seems unable to Use "named subpattern".
preg_match() seems a substitute only in UTF-8 encoding.
<?php
$text = 'multi_byte_string';
$pattern = '.*(?<name>string).*'; // "?P" causes "mbregex compile err" in PHP 5.3.5
if(mb_ereg($pattern, $text, $matches)){
echo '<pre>'.print_r($matches, true).'</pre>';
}else{
echo 'no match';
}
?>
This code ignores "?<name>" in $pattern and displays below.
Array
(
[0] => multi_byte_string
[1] => string
)
$pattern = '/.*(?<name>string).*/u';
if(preg_match($pattern, $text, $matches)){
instead of lines 2 & 3
displays below (in UTF-8 encoding).
Array
(
[0] => multi_byte_string
[name] => string
[1] => string
)
<?php
// in PHP_VERSION 7.1
// WITHOUT $regs (3rd argument)
$int = mb_ereg('abcde', '_abcde_'); // [5 bytes match]
var_dump($int); // int(1)
$int = mb_ereg('ab', '_ab_'); // [2 bytes match]
var_dump($int); // int(1)
$int = mb_ereg('^', '_ab_'); // [0 bytes match]
var_dump($int); // int(1)
$int = mb_ereg('ab', '__'); // [not match]
var_dump($int); // bool(false)
$int = mb_ereg('', '_ab_'); // [error : empty pattern]
// Warning: mb_ereg(): empty pattern in ...
var_dump($int); // bool(false)
$int = mb_ereg('ab'); // [error : fewer arguments]
// Warning: mb_ereg() expects at least 2 parameters, 1 given in ...
var_dump($int); // bool(false)
// Without 3rd argument, mb_ereg() returns either int(1) or bool(false).
// WITH $regs (3rd argument)
$int = mb_ereg('abcde', '_abcde_', $regs);// [5 bytes match]
var_dump($int); // int(5)
var_dump($regs); // array(1) { [0]=> string(5) "abcde" }
$int = mb_ereg('ab', '_ab_', $regs); // [2 bytes match]
var_dump($int); // int(2)
var_dump($regs); // array(1) { [0]=> string(2) "ab" }
$int = mb_ereg('^', '_ab_', $regs); // [0 bytes match]
var_dump($int); // int(1)
var_dump($regs); // array(1) { [0]=> bool(false) }
$int = mb_ereg('ab', '__', $regs); // [not match]
var_dump($int); // bool(false)
var_dump($regs); // array(0) { }
$int = mb_ereg('', '_ab_', $regs); // [error : empty pattern]
// Warning: mb_ereg(): empty pattern in ...
var_dump($int); // bool(false)
var_dump($regs); // array(0) { }
$int = mb_ereg('ab'); // [error : fewer arguments]
// Warning: mb_ereg() expects at least 2 parameters, 1 given in ...
var_dump($int); // bool(false)
var_dump($regs); // array(0) { }
// With 3rd argument, mb_ereg() returns either int(how many bytes matched) or bool(false)
// and 3rd argument is a bit complicated.
?>
While hardly mentioned anywhere, it may be useful to note that mb_ereg uses Oniguruma library internally. The syntax for the default mode (ruby) is described here:
http://www.geocities.jp/kosako3/oniguruma/doc/RE.txt
Hebrew regex tested on PHP 5, Ubuntu 8.04.
Seems to work fine without the mb_regex_encoding lines (commented out).
Didn't seem to work with \uxxxx (also commented out).
<?php
echo "Line ";
//mb_regex_encoding("ISO-8859-8");
//if(mb_ereg(".*([\u05d0-\u05ea]).*", $this->current_line))
if(mb_ereg(".*([א-ת]).*", $this->current_line))
{
echo "has";
}
else
{
echo "doesn't have";
}
echo " Hebrew characters.<br>";
//mb_regex_encoding("UTF-8");
?>