PHP regular expression weird behavior

Question

I started having hands with regular expressions in PHP and stuck in start.

I have written following block:-

$object = "ng_amg_gt-1";

switch ($object)
{
    case preg_match('/^ng_amg_gt-[0-9]+$/', $object):
        echo 'first';    
        break;

    case preg_match('/^ng_amg_gt-_cg-[0-9]+$/', $object):
        echo 'second';
        break;

}

I thought "ng_amg_gt-1" will match preg_match('/^ng_amg_gt-[0-9]+$/', $object) but interestingly(anoyingly) it is echoing second.

What I am missing?

PS :- It may seem an obvious question but not getting any breakthrough, thats why I have posted it over here.

Thanks

preg_match returns an int, you're doing a switch on a string, and I dont even know if that's valid. Just do an if (preg_match(...)) — tigrang
– tigrang, Commented May 25, 2012 at 18:26

flowfree · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-25 18:31:08Z

2

What I am missing?

Here is what you missed:

$object = "ng_amg_gt-1";

if(preg_match('/^ng_amg_gt-[0-9]+$/', $object)) {
    echo 'first';
} else if(preg_match('/^ng_amg_gt-_cg-[0-9]+$/', $object)) {
    echo 'second';
}

edited May 25, 2012 at 18:31

answered May 25, 2012 at 18:27

flowfree

16.5k12 gold badges55 silver badges79 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Jatin Dhoot Over a year ago

Thanks for the efforts, I got an idea from this

huysentruitw · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-25 18:29:02Z

1

preg_match returns the number of pattern matches and you compare that to a string

answered May 25, 2012 at 18:29

huysentruitw

28.2k10 gold badges95 silver badges142 bronze badges

1 Comment

Jatin Dhoot Over a year ago

I offer mea-culpa for this blunder

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP regular expression weird behavior

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related