Regex match returning unexpected results

Question

I'm trying a regex match, but am getting unexpected results. What am I doing wrong?

$text = "one two three?four five six?";
preg_match("~(.+?)(?:\?)?~", $text, $match);

print_r($match);

Result:

Array ( [0] => o [1] => o )

Expected Result:

Array ( [0] => one two three? [1] => one two three )

Answer 1

You need to remove the ? next to non-capturing group which makes that non-capturing group as optional. Since the ? is optional, (.+?) non-greedy pattern should match and capture only the first character.

preg_match("~(.+?)\?~", $text, $match);

DEMO