Regex that only works with pre-defined variables?

[edking1]

Hi everyone

I have an extremely annoying problem and was wondering if anyone could shed some light..

I have a regex of the form:

preg_match_all('~<img.*?src=("|\')([^\1]+?)\1~is', $input, $out);

which basically looks for the URL in the image tag. This works fine when I use something like:

$input = "hi there here is an image <img src=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/zanelowe/muse-thumb-400x315.jpg\">";

But I'm trying to use it on something like:

$input = $_POST['description'];

where 'description' has an identical img tag to the one in the predefined variable but it's not working. I've tried everything but nothing seems to work..

Is it maybe something to do with escaping quote marks or adding slashes or something?

Any help would be massively appreciated,
Thanks

[big_nerd]

Perhaps check to see if magic_quotes_gpc is enabled?

If so - it may explain why this is happening.

You can add the following function (taken from PHP Manual under disable magic quotes):

<?php
if (get_magic_quotes_gpc()) {
    function stripslashes_deep($value)
    {
        $value = is_array($value) ?
                    array_map('stripslashes_deep', $value) :
                    stripslashes($value);

    return $value;
}

$_POST = array_map('stripslashes_deep', $_POST);
$_GET = array_map('stripslashes_deep', $_GET);
$_COOKIE = array_map('stripslashes_deep', $_COOKIE);
$_REQUEST = array_map('stripslashes_deep', $_REQUEST);
}
?>

Place it before you grab the $_POST input.

The best bet is to disable it via php.ini.

[edking1]

Ah, that was it!

I really can't thank you enough, that was driving me mad!!
Thanks