PHP preg_match return false

Question

I tried this regex syntax in http://gskinner.com/RegExr/ and seem working well.

^[a-z0-9-]+.([a-z]{2,4})$

the purpose is to match domain name(not containing http or https)

so i use preg_match( '/^[a-z0-9-]+.([a-z]{2,4})$/g', 'fathi-hadi.net' ) but always return false

i don't know why

you may want to escape the . => \., the dot matches any character. — Gerald Schneider
– Gerald Schneider, Commented Jan 10, 2013 at 14:57

Oldskool · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-10 14:56:37Z

2

When you turn on error reporting, you would've noticed preg_match doesn't support the g modifier:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Unknown modifier 'g'

So drop that and use:

preg_match('/^[a-z0-9-]+\.([a-z]{2,4})$/', 'fathi-hadi.net');

That will match. I also incorporated Gerald Schneider's comment about escaping the dot, which is a good point.

answered Jan 10, 2013 at 14:56

Oldskool

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3 Comments

Yes, it match now, Thanks Oldskool

There is still a bug with the dot -- as it is now, it will match any character, which isn't the intended result.

@SDC : yes, in the first comment, Gerald Schneider already mention about that. Thanks you