preg_replace help

[giannitom]

Hi all,
I want to replace in a given string the words "OPEN" and "CLOSE" with "(" and ")".
If the string is "OPEN test CLOSE" with
preg_replace('/OPEN(.*)CLOSE/', "($1)" , $string)
I obtain "( test )" but if the string is "OPEN test1 CLOSE OPEN test2 CLOSE" preg_replace returns "( test1 CLOSE OPEN test2 )" and not "( test1 ) (test2 )"
How can I change the regular expression to do the work?
(I'm not interested to a solution with str_replace)

[OhLordy]

Why do you not want to consider str_replace. If you don't require the power of regular expressions then why use them? str_replace would be quiker and is specifically designed for this type of job.
Rob

[giannitom]

because my problem is more complex and I need the power of regular expressions

[ednark]

one problems is the greed. regular expressions are greedy they will match as much as possible by default

/OPEN(.*)CLOSE/ used on "OPEN CLOSE CLOSE" will match the first open and the last close

you want to turn on non greedy... read up on php.net about preg_ functions and syntax

A question mark will make it stop matching . the first CLOSE which is what i think you want

/OPEN(.*?)CLOSE/