php regex for string between :" and "

Question

I'm trying to grab the string between :" and " in an array in PHP using preg_match_all.

eg:

"I am a string"("string"):"Need this string", "I am a string"("string"):"Need this string", etc, etc

I had the following but it returns no results or errors and works in the regex builders I've tried.

/\"\:"(.*?)\"/ and #/\"\:"(.*?)\"/#

Ja͢ck · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-14 10:49:00Z

1

The expression can be made much simpler like this:

if (preg_match_all('/:"(.*?)"/', $str, $matches)) {
    // $matches[1] will contain all the strings you want
}

answered Nov 14, 2012 at 10:49

Ja͢ck

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2 Comments

isn't correct.. expression matches strings like ':"string","adfadf"' instead of ':"string"'

@vlcekmi3 I'm using a non-greedy pattern by adding a question mark. Alternatively I could have used the U modifier.

mychalvlcek · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-14 10:43:10Z

0

try this pattern:

#:"([^"]*)"#

answered Nov 14, 2012 at 10:43

mychalvlcek

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