ereg always matches last occurance of reg exp

[johnwarde]

The ereg() function always matches last occurance of the supplied regular exppression.

Why is this and how can I get it to match the first occurence in the string?

example:

$reg_exp = "^.*([0-9]).*$";

$test_str = " 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ";
ereg($reg_exp, $test_str, $matches);
echo "Found [".$matches[1]."]<BR>\r\n";

$test_str = " 1, 2, 3, 4 ";
ereg($reg_exp, $test_str, $matches);
echo "Found [".$matches[1]."]<BR>\r\n";

output:
Found [5]
Found [4]

[abnfire]

$reg_exp = "^[0-9]$";

$test_str = " 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ";
ereg($reg_exp, $test_str, $matches);
echo "Found [".$matches[1]."]<BR>\r\n";

$test_str = " 1, 2, 3, 4 ";
ereg($reg_exp, $test_str, $matches);
echo "Found [".$matches[1]."]<BR>\r\n";

[Mordecai]

1) I would suggest using preg_match, it's faster.
2) Use ([0-9]) as your regular expression (if you're going to use preg_match).
3) Use $matches[0] for the first occurance.

Hope that helps.

[Weedpacket]

Further to Mordecai's post, note that PCRE regexps such as those used by preg_match, include \d as an abbreviation for [0-9].

You may also want to check out [man]preg_match_all[/man] if you might be after the other digits as well.