Regex encapsulation php

Question

What is the difference / disadvantages of using "/" or "#" as regex encapsulation

eg.

'/' = preg_match('/MYSEARCH}(.+)ENDMYSEARCH/s',$out,$matches);

'#' = preg_match('#MYSEARCH}(.+)ENDMYSEARCH#s',$out,$matches);

Thank!

+2

Lizard Sep 18 09 at 16:22

2 answers

Also remember that with preg_quote you can add a separator for escaping.

+1

OIS Sep 18 09 at 16:32

Pascal MARTIN · Accepted Answer · 2009-09-18T16:26:13+0000

The only thing that matters for PHP / PCRE is that you must use the same character at the beginning and at the end .

It's important for you to avoid: inside a regex, you need to escape the delimiter if you want to use it.

For example, to match a portion of a URL using / as a delimiter, a regex might look like this:

'/^http:\/\/www/'

When using /

as a separator, you need to escape the forward slashes inside the regex - not easy and doesn't look good.

On the other hand, using #

as a separator:

'#http://www#'

Much easier to write and read, isn't it?

Depending on your needs and / or preference, you can use any character you want - sometimes I see " !

" or " ~

", for example.