preg_quote
Quote regular expression characters
The special regular expression characters are: . \ + * ? [ ^ ] $ ( ) { } = ! < > | : - #
Note that / is not a special regular expression character.
Syntax
preg_quote ( string $str [, string $delimiter = NULL ] ) : string
Parameters
str
The input string.
delimiter
If the optional delimiter is specified, it will also be escaped. This is useful for escaping the delimiter that is required by the PCRE functions. The / is the most commonly used delimiter.
Return
Returns the quoted (escaped) string.
Examples
str
<? $str = "$40 for a g3/400"; $return = preg_quote($str); echo $return; ?>
\$40 for a g3/400
delimiter
<? $str = "$40 for a g3/400"; $delimiter = "/"; $return = preg_quote($str, $delimiter); echo $return; ?>
\$40 for a g3\/400
Asterisk
<? // preg_quote($str) keeps the asterisks from having special meaning to the regular expression $str = "*very*"; $return = preg_quote($str); $pattern = "#$return#"; $replacement = "<i>$str</i>"; $subject = "This book is *very* difficult to find."; $preg_replace = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $subject); echo $preg_replace; ?>
This book is <i>*very*</i> difficult to find.