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phpregexpreg-match

How to use | operator in preg_match for searching between strings?

I've seen many answers, but none seem to help me with my situation. I need to extract the comments from this text:

Comments: These are the comments and they end at this full stop. Remember, you can only use the personal information...

OR this text:

Comments: These are the comments and they end at this full stop. You can only use the personal information...

A working example is here: https://regex101.com/r/apIT0O/1

But I can't seem to get this into PHP. I can get one to work with: 

$pattern = "/(?<=Comments: )(.*?)(?= Remember, you can)/s";

But what is wrong with this?

$pattern = "/(?<=Comments: )(.*?)(?= Remember, you can)|(?<=Comments: )(.*?)(?= You can)/s";

Many thanks!

Solution

  • With preg_match_all you can get all result with your regex.

    Try this:

    /(?<=Comments: )(.*?)(?= Remember, you can)|(?<=Comments: )(.*?)(?= You can)/s

    Explanation

    Sample Code:

    <?php

$re = '/(?<=Comments: )(.*?).(?= Remember, you can)|(?<=Comments: )(.*?)(?= You can)/sm';
$str = 'Comments: These are the comments and they end at this full stop. Remember, you can only use the personal information...

Comments: These are the comments and they end at this full stop. You can only use the personal information...';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches);
print_r($matches);
?>

    Runt it here