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PHP Regular Expressions

ExamplePHP
<?php
$text = "Contact ada@example.com or sam@wecode.org by 2026-11-04.";

echo preg_match('/\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}/', $text, $m), " ", $m[0], "\n";

preg_match_all('/[\w.]+@[\w.]+\.\w+/', $text, $emails);
print_r($emails[0]);

echo preg_replace('/\s+/', " ", "too    many   spaces"), "\n";
echo preg_replace('/(\w+)@(\w+)/', '$2 at $1', "ada@example"), "\n";
print_r(preg_split('/[\s,]+/', "a, b  c,d"));
var_dump(preg_match('/^[A-Z][a-z]+$/', "Hello"));
Output
1 2026-11-04
Array
(
    [0] => ada@example.com
    [1] => sam@wecode.org
)
too many spaces
example at ada
Array
(
    [0] => a
    [1] => b
    [2] => c
    [3] => d
)
int(1)

Regular expressions are patterns for matching text. preg_match finds the first match, preg_match_all all of them, and preg_replace substitutes.

Quick check

Which function replaces text matching a pattern?

Finish the quick check (and any code exercise) to complete this lesson, or mark it done yourself.

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