Question about regex - eregi("<[^>]*script*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)

Question about regex - eregi("<[^>]script\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)

JLerster

Could some body explain this to me?

eregi("<[^>]*script*\"?[^>]*>", $secvalue)

I understand the eregi() function(well, Im trying to at least) it is the meta-characters used that I dont get. I have read the documentatin at php.net that covers it, but acording to the way they explain it, * means 0 or more of n, so eighther script* would be 0 or more of script, or there is more to n than I know about. Could somebody explain this to me or point me to a place that can?

xblue

Hi there,

quantifiers only apply to the element directly before them, so
script* matches scrip, script, scripttt

To match the complete thing 0 to n times, it would need to be
(script)*

Have a look into the article section, I think there is one about ereg style regex that explains the basics quite well.

mcgruff

A general point.

In order of preference:

(1) string functions: eg str_replace()

(2) regex: eg preg_replace(), preg_match()

(3) posix: eg eregi() - never at all 'coz the other two are faster

I wouldn't presume to fully understand the eregi() fn you posted (far too lazy to get into all that posix stuff), but would htmlspecialchars() do the trick?