[RESOLVED] regular expression help

[jasondavis]

<?php
$text = 'This is a myspace test of m*ys_p a+c..e variations on the
word MyS.p*a#CE. The end.';

if(preg_match_all('/m[^a-z]*y[^a-z]*s[^a-z]*p[^a-z]*a[^a-z]*c[^a-z]*e/i', $text, $matches))
{
   echo "<p>Found these matches:</p>\n";
   echo "<ul>\n";
   foreach($matches[0] as $word)
   {
      echo "<li>$word</li>\n";
   }
   echo "</ul>\n";
} 
?>

nogdog gave me this code and it works well I thought until now I found a flaw in it

myspace and myspace with a space in it and with that space being any character is matched except if that space = a letter so mLyspace is not matched but m1yspace is

[NogDog]

Do you want to match any characters, or any non-space characters, or what? Should this match: "I may spray creosote as an insect repellant."? (Precise requirements help to achieve precise solutions.)

[jasondavis]

Hi I really learned a lot of the original one you made and that why I studied it and just now realized after like a month that it isnt exactly what I needed

SO i guess I want to match any of these, so the term myspace with any character,letter,number,or whitespace in between the word myspace, thanks for your help =)

m y s p a c e
mysp@ce
m y s p @ c e
myspace
m-y-space
m-y-s-p-a-c-e
myspa.c-e
myAspace
m1y2s3p4a5c6e
mAyBsCpDaEcFe

also the only problem with below match would be the "yWHITESPACE" would be 2 character wide that doesnt match

"I may spray creosote as an insect repellant."

[NogDog]

So it sounds like what you want is:

'/m.?y.?s.?p.?a.?c.?e/i'

[jasondavis]

amazing even less code, I have tried a hundred combinations and been reading about regular expressions all evening, thank you =)

[jasondavis]

actually 1 more question, since this counts like mSPACEySPACEsSPACEpSPACEaSPACEcSPACEe like this is it possible to add support for up to 2 letters/numbers/spaces inbetween the myspace word?

[NogDog]

Not 100% sure I understand, but I think what you want is to change each "?" to "{0,2}" (without the quotes). "{0,2}" means "from 0 to 2 of the preceding character or sub-pattern."

[jasondavis]

NogDog wrote:

Not 100% sure I understand, but I think what you want is to change each "?" to "{0,2}" (without the quotes). "{0,2}" means "from 0 to 2 of the preceding character or sub-pattern."

thats is exactly what i was looking for and thanks for explaining it too