fnmatch | Functions | PHP

Match filename against a pattern

Syntax

fnmatch(string $pattern, string $filename, int $flags = 0): bool

Parameters

pattern

The shell wildcard pattern.

filename

The tested string. This function is especially useful for filenames, but may also be used on regular strings.

The average user may be used to shell patterns or at least in their simplest form to '?' and '*' wildcards so using fnmatch() instead of preg_match() for frontend search expression input may be way more convenient for non-programming users.

flags

The value of flags can be any combination of the following flags, joined with the binary OR (|) operator.

Number	Name	Description
1	FNM_PATHNAME	Slash in string only matches slash in the given pattern.
2	FNM_NOESCAPE	Disable backslash escaping.
4	FNM_PERIOD	Leading period in string must be exactly matched by period in the given pattern.
16	FNM_CASEFOLD	Caseless match. Part of the GNU extension.

Return

Returns TRUE if there is a match, FALSE otherwise.

Examples

pattern filename

<?

$pattern = "gr[ae]y";
$filename = "gray";

$return = fnmatch($pattern, $filename);

var_export($return);

?>

true

flags | FNM_PATHNAME

<?

$pattern = "/*";
$filename = "/path/";
$flags = FNM_PATHNAME;

$return1 = fnmatch($pattern, $filename);
$return2 = fnmatch($pattern, $filename, $flags);

var_dump($return1, $return2);

?>

bool(true)
bool(false)

flags | FNM_NOESCAPE

<?

$pattern = "\\\\";
$filename = "\\";
$flags = FNM_NOESCAPE;

$return1 = fnmatch($pattern, $filename);
$return2 = fnmatch($pattern, $filename, $flags);

var_dump($return1, $return2);

?>

bool(true)
bool(false)

flags | FNM_PERIOD

<?

$pattern = "[\.]*";
$filename = ".";
$flags = FNM_PERIOD;

$return1 = fnmatch($pattern, $filename);
$return2 = fnmatch($pattern, $filename, $flags);

var_dump($return1, $return2);

?>

bool(true)
bool(false)

flags | FNM_CASEFOLD

<?

$pattern = "CASE";
$filename = "case";
$flags = FNM_CASEFOLD;

$return1 = fnmatch($pattern, $filename);
$return2 = fnmatch($pattern, $filename, $flags);

var_dump($return1, $return2);

?>

bool(false)
bool(true)

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