String comparison with * wildcard

[Rohan_Hill]

I'm trying to write PHP code to take a string like "abcabc" and compare it with a string like "abc123abc" and tell that the strings match if is treated as a wildcard. It's easy enough if only one is used but I need this to work for any number of 's. Only one of the strings being compared will have a * in it. This is proving quite hard to code, has anyone else already written code to do it? Thanks!

[cdbsi]

if (ereg('^abc.+abc$', 'abc123')) {
echo "Match found.";
} else {
echo "No match found.";
}

This will match anything string that begins with abc, ends with abc, and has something inbetween. (i.e. "abc123abc" or "abc abc" but not "abcabc")

Hope this helps.

[epimeth]

where can I get info on regular expressions? I don't understand how to build them....

[cgraz]

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php and http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=PHP+%2B+regular+expressions

Cgraz

[cdbsi]

Here is an article on this very site that will help you learn how to create and understand regular expressions.

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/dario19990616.php3