A simple preg_match() problem

[ufan100]

I've been trying to get to grips with escaping backlashes so I wrote the following test script and used php cli to see where PCRE complained about an incorrect number of backslashes. In my php.ini file, I used

error_reporting = E_ALL | E_STRICT

I used '#' has the delimiter for the regexp.

<?php

for($i=1; $i<=10; ++$i) {
    echo "\n---------------------------------\n";    

    echo "Number of '\\' is $i \n";
    $bs = '#';
    $bs .=  str_repeat('\\',$i);
    $bs .= '#';
    echo 'Pattern is: ' . $bs . "\n";
    $php_errormsg = "";
    @preg_match($bs, "anystring") . "\n";
    if($php_errormsg != '')
        echo "ERROR " . $php_errormsg . "\n";    

}

/*
echo preg_match('#\\\#', "any"); ==> no errors
unlike for $i==3 in the loop above
*/

As the comment just above says, I get no error if I use 3 slashes in a script but I do when I build the pattern up and test it in the loop of the script.

As you can see in the script, if there is no error, I don't output a message. Here is the output:

[CODE]

Number of '\' is 1
Pattern is: ##
ERROR preg_match(): No ending delimiter '#' found

---

Number of '\' is 2
Pattern is: #\#

---

Number of '\' is 3
Pattern is: #\#
ERROR preg_match(): No ending delimiter '#' found

---

Number of '\' is 4
Pattern is: #\\#

---

Number of '\' is 5
Pattern is: #\\#
ERROR preg_match(): No ending delimiter '#' found

---

Number of '\' is 6
Pattern is: #\\\#

---

Number of '\' is 7
Pattern is: #\\\#
ERROR preg_match(): No ending delimiter '#' found

---

Number of '\' is 8
Pattern is: #\\\\#

---

Number of '\' is 9
Pattern is: #\\\\#
ERROR preg_match(): No ending delimiter '#' found

---

Number of '\' is 10
Pattern is: #\\\\\#
[/CODE]

$i==3 is not the only difference I found.
For e.g. the following in a script does not throw an error:

<?php
echo preg_match('#\\\\\\\#', "any");

This has seven backslashes which should show an error according to the code that runs in a loop in my test script.

Any ideas about what I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

Lucas