Métacaractères

La puissance des expressions régulières provient de leur capacité à autoriser des alternatives et des quantificateurs de répétition dans le masque. Ils sont encodés dans le masque par des métacaractères, qui ne représentent pas ce qu'ils sont, mais sont interprétés d'une certaine manière.

Il y a deux sortes de métacaractères : ceux qui sont reconnus n'importe où dans un masque, hormis entre crochets, et ceux qui sont reconnus entre crochets. À l'extérieur des crochets, les métacaractères sont :

Métacaractère en dehors des crochets
MétacaractèreDescription
\Caractère d'échappement, avec de multiples usages
^Le début de la chaîne sujet (ou de ligne, en mode multilignes)
$La fin de la chaîne sujet ou avant la fin d'une nouvelle ligne (ou fin de ligne, en mode multilignes)
.Remplace n'importe quel caractère, hormis le caractère de nouvelle ligne (par défaut)
[Caractère de début de définition de classe
]Caractère de fin de définition de classe
|Caractère de début d'alternative
(Caractère de début de sous-masque
)Caractère de fin de sous-masque
?Étend le sens de (; quantificateur de 0 ou 1; quantificateur de minimisation (Voir les répétitions)
*Quantificateur de 0 ou plus
+Quantificateur de 1 ou plus
{Caractère de début de quantificateur minimum/maximum
}Caractère de fin de quantificateur minimum/maximum
La partie du masque qui est entourée de crochets est appelée classe de caractères. Dans les classes de caractères, les seuls métacaractères autorisés sont :
Meta-characters dans des crochets (classes de caractères)
MétacaractèreDescription
\Caractère de protection, avec de multiples usages
^Négation de la classe, mais uniquement si placé tout au début de la classe
-Indique un intervalle de caractères
La section suivante décrit l'utilisation de chaque métacaractère.

add a note add a note

User Contributed Notes 6 notes

up
0
fiwswe
4 years ago
".    match any character except newline (by default)"

Here "newline" seems to include both \n (LF) and \r (CR) in PHP 7.4.6. PHP 7.3.18 seems to be more tolerant and only include \n (LF).

Example:

<?php
$s
= "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n";
if (!
preg_match('/^HTTP\/(\d\.\d)\s*(\d+).*\n/', $s, $m))
    echo
"Not matched correctly!\n";
else
    echo
"OK\n";
?>

The ".*" is supposed to match 0-n characters including \r (CR). It does so in PHP 7.3.18 but not in PHP 7.4.6.

Result (PHP 7.3.18):
OK

Result (PHP 7.4.6):
Not matched correctly!

A pattern that works in both versions of PHP looks like this:
'/^HTTP\/(\d\.\d)\s*(\d+).*\r?\n/'
up
-1
Kurt Wei
8 years ago
disturbing usage of "any character" for multi-lines...

remark:
'.' (all characters) just does NOT include on single character the newline (\n) by default,
while \n is included in all other matching searches (e.g. \s).
Funny enough, the "carriage return" (\r) is included, when using '.'

You have to write "(.|\\n)" instead of a single dot, with disadvantages in using complex matching-results,

or simple use the "s" modificator to bring dot to accept the newline.

$subject="<tag>Hello\nWorld</tag>";

preg_match( '/<tag>[A-Za-z\\s]*<\\/tag>/' , $subject ); //true
preg_match( '/<tag>[^<]*<\\/tag>/' , $subject ); //true
preg_match( '/<tag>(.|\\n)*<\\/tag>/' , $subject ); //true
preg_match( '/<tag>.*<\\/tag>/s' , $subject ); //true
preg_match( '/<tag>.*<\\/tag>/' , $subject ); //ATTENTION! *false*
up
-1
Wirek
6 years ago
Significantly updated version (with $pat4 and the best $pat5!):
A hint for those of you who are trying to fight off (or work around at least) the problem of matching a pattern correctly at the end ($) of any line in multiple lines mode (/m).
<?php
// Various OS-es have various end line (a.k.a line break) chars:
// - Windows uses CR+LF (\r\n);
// - Linux LF (\n);
// - OSX CR (\r).
// And that's why single dollar meta assertion ($) sometimes fails with multiline modifier (/m) mode - possible bug in PHP 5.3.8 or just a "feature"(?).
$str="ABC ABC\n\n123 123\r\ndef def\rnop nop\r\n890 890\nQRS QRS\r\r~-_ ~-_";
//          C          3                   p          0                   _
$pat1='/\w$/mi';
$pat2='/\w\r?$/mi';
$pat3='/\w\R?$/mi';
$pat4='/\w\v?$/mi';
$pat5='/(*ANYCRLF)\w$/mi';
$n=preg_match_all($pat1, $str, $m1);
$o=preg_match_all($pat2, $str, $m2);
$p=preg_match_all($pat3, $str, $m3);
$r=preg_match_all($pat4, $str, $m4);
$s=preg_match_all($pat5, $str, $m5);
echo
$str."\n1 !!! $pat1 ($n): ".print_r($m1[0], true)
    .
"\n2 !!! $pat2 ($o): ".print_r($m2[0], true)
    .
"\n3 !!! $pat3 ($p): ".print_r($m3[0], true)
    .
"\n4 !!! $pat4 ($r): ".print_r($m4[0], true)
    .
"\n5 !!! $pat5 ($s): ".print_r($m5[0], true);
// Note the difference between the three very helpful escape sequences in $pat2 (\r), $pat3 (\R), $pat4 (\v) and altered newline option in $pat5 ((*ANYCRLF)) - for some applications at least.

/* The code above results in the following output:
ABC ABC

123 123
def def
nop nop
890 890
QRS QRS

~-_ ~-_
1 !!! /\w$/mi (3): Array
(
    [0] => C
    [1] => 0
    [2] => _
)

2 !!! /\w\r?$/mi (5): Array
(
    [0] => C
    [1] => 3
    [2] => p
    [3] => 0
    [4] => _
)

3 !!! /\w\R?$/mi (5): Array
(
    [0] => C

    [1] => 3
    [2] => p
    [3] => 0
    [4] => _
)

4 !!! /\w\v?$/mi (5): Array
(
    [0] => C

    [1] => 3
    [2] => p
    [3] => 0
    [4] => _
)

5 !!! /(*ANYCRLF)\w$/mi (7): Array
(
    [0] => C
    [1] => 3
    [2] => f
    [3] => p
    [4] => 0
    [5] => S
    [6] => _
)
*/
?>
Unfortunately, I haven't got any access to a server with the latest PHP version - my local PHP is 5.3.8 and my public host's PHP is version 5.2.17.
up
-2
Wirek
6 years ago
An important addendum (with new $pat3_2 utilising \R properly, its results and comments):
Note that there are (sometimes difficult to grasp at first glance) nuances of meaning and application of escape sequences like \r, \R and \v - none of them is perfect in all situations, but they are quite useful nevertheless. Some official PCRE control options and their changes come in handy too - unfortunately neither (*ANYCRLF), (*ANY) nor (*CRLF) is documented here on php.net at the moment (although they seem to be available for over 10 years and 5 months now), but they are described on Wikipedia ("Newline/linebreak options" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_Compatible_Regular_Expressions) and official PCRE library site ("Newline convention" at http://www.pcre.org/original/doc/html/pcresyntax.html#SEC17) pretty well. The functionality of \R appears somehow disappointing (with default configuration of compile time option) according to php.net as well as official description ("Newline sequences" at https://www.pcre.org/original/doc/html/pcrepattern.html#newlineseq) when used improperly.

A hint for those of you who are trying to fight off (or work around at least) the problem of matching a pattern correctly at the end (or at the beginning) of any line even without the multiple lines mode (/m) or meta-character assertions ($ or ^).
<?php
// Various OS-es have various end line (a.k.a line break) chars:
// - Windows uses CR+LF (\r\n);
// - Linux LF (\n);
// - OSX CR (\r).
// And that's why single dollar meta assertion ($) sometimes fails with multiline modifier (/m) mode - possible bug in PHP 5.3.8 or just a "feature"(?) of default configuration option for meta-character assertions (^ and $) at compile time of PCRE.
$str="ABC ABC\n\n123 123\r\ndef def\rnop nop\r\n890 890\nQRS QRS\r\r~-_ ~-_";
//          C          3                   p          0                   _
$pat3='/\w\R?$/mi';    // Somehow disappointing according to php.net and pcre.org when used improperly
$pat3_2='/\w(?=\R)/i';    // Much better with allowed lookahead assertion (just to detect without capture) without multiline (/m) mode; note that with alternative for end of string ((?=\R|$)) it would grab all 7 elements as expected, but '/(*ANYCRLF)\w$/mi' is more straightforward in use anyway
$p=preg_match_all($pat3, $str, $m3);
$r=preg_match_all($pat3_2, $str, $m4);
echo
$str."\n3 !!! $pat3 ($p): ".print_r($m3[0], true)
    .
"\n3_2 !!! $pat3_2 ($r): ".print_r($m4[0], true);
// Note the difference between the two very helpful escape sequences in $pat3 and $pat3_2 (\R) - for some applications at least.

/* The code above results in the following output:
ABC ABC

123 123
def def
nop nop
890 890
QRS QRS

~-_ ~-_
3 !!! /\w\R?$/mi (5): Array
(
    [0] => C

    [1] => 3
    [2] => p
    [3] => 0
    [4] => _
)

3_2 !!! /\w(?=\R)/i (6): Array
(
    [0] => C
    [1] => 3
    [2] => f
    [3] => p
    [4] => 0
    [5] => S
)
*/
?>
Unfortunately, I haven't got any access to a server with the latest PHP version - my local PHP is 5.3.8 and my public host's PHP is version 5.2.17.
up
-2
Wirek
6 years ago
A hint for those of you who are trying to fight off (or work around at least) the problem of matching a pattern correctly at the end ($) of any line in multiple lines mode (/m).
<?php
// Various OS-es have various end line (a.k.a line break) chars:
// - Windows uses CR+LF (\r\n);
// - Linux LF (\n);
// - OSX CR (\r).
// And that's why single dollar meta assertion ($) sometimes fails with multiline modifier (/m) mode - possible bug in PHP 5.3.8(?).
$str="ABC ABC\n\n123 123\r\ndef def\rnop nop\r\n890 890\nQRS QRS\r\r~-_ ~-_";
//          C          3                   p          0                   _
$pat1='/\w$/mi';
$pat2='/\w\r?$/mi';
$pat3='/\w\R?$/mi';
$n=preg_match_all($pat1, $str, $m1);
$o=preg_match_all($pat2, $str, $m2);
$p=preg_match_all($pat3, $str, $m3);
echo
$str."\n1 !!! $pat1 ($n): ".print_r($m1[0], true)
    .
"\n2 !!! $pat2 ($o): ".print_r($m2[0], true)
    .
"\n3 !!! $pat3 ($p): ".print_r($m3[0], true);
// Note the difference between the two very helpful escape sequences in $pat2 (\r) and in $pat3 (\R) - for some applications at least.

/* The code above results in the following output:
ABC ABC

123 123
def def
nop nop
890 890
QRS QRS

~-_ ~-_
1 !!! /\w$/mi (3): Array
(
    [0] => C
    [1] => 0
    [2] => _
)

2 !!! /\w\r?$/mi (5): Array
(
    [0] => C
    [1] => 3
    [2] => p
    [3] => 0
    [4] => _
)

3 !!! /\w\R?$/mi (5): Array
(
    [0] => C

    [1] => 3
    [2] => p
    [3] => 0
    [4] => _
)
*/
?>
Unfortunately, I haven't got any access to a server with the latest PHP version - my local PHP is 5.3.8 and my public host's PHP is version 5.2.17.
up
-37
Thomas
9 years ago
The meta character $ accepts a (one) newline character (\n).

(Take a moment to let this information sink in)

You might want to (r)trim() your input afterwards if you have a match because otherwise it (still) might not meet a length requirement or other strange stuff might happen when you store the input as-is.
To Top