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# preg_match

preg_match -- Perform a regular expression match

## Description

`int preg_match`(string pattern, string subject, array [matches]);

Searches `subject` for a match to the regular expression given in `pattern`.

If `matches` is provided, then it is filled with the results of search. $matches[0] will contain the text that match the full pattern, $matches[1] will have the text that matched the first captured parenthesized subpattern, and so on.

Returns true if a match for `pattern` was found in the subject string, or false if not match was found or an error occurred.

Example 1. Getting the page number out of a string

      1
      2 if (preg_match("/page\s+#(\d+)/i", "Go to page #9.", $parts))
      3     print "Next page is $parts[1]";
      4 else
      5     print "Page not found.";
      6

See also preg_match_all(), preg_replace(), and preg_split().

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Perl-compatible Regular Expression functions | Up | preg_match_all