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<h1 class="refname">preg_match_all</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">preg_match_all</span> — <span class="dc-title">Perform a global regular expression match</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.preg-match-all-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type">int</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>preg_match_all</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$pattern</code></span>
, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$subject</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">array</span> <code class="parameter reference">&$matches</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$flags</code><span class="initializer"> = <strong><code>PREG_PATTERN_ORDER</code></strong></span></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$offset</code><span class="initializer"> = 0</span></span>
]]] )</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
Searches <em><code class="parameter">subject</code></em> for all matches to the regular
expression given in <em><code class="parameter">pattern</code></em> and puts them in
<em><code class="parameter">matches</code></em> in the order specified by
<em><code class="parameter">flags</code></em>.
</p>
<p class="para">
After the first match is found, the subsequent searches are continued
on from end of the last match.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.preg-match-all-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">pattern</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The pattern to search for, as a string.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">subject</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The input string.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">matches</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Array of all matches in multi-dimensional array ordered according to
<em><code class="parameter">flags</code></em>.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">flags</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Can be a combination of the following flags (note that it doesn't make
sense to use <strong><code>PREG_PATTERN_ORDER</code></strong> together with
<strong><code>PREG_SET_ORDER</code></strong>):
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><strong><code>PREG_PATTERN_ORDER</code></strong></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Orders results so that <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$matches[0]</var></var> is an array of full
pattern matches, <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$matches[1]</var></var> is an array of strings matched by
the first parenthesized subpattern, and so on.
</p>
<p class="para">
<div class="informalexample">
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />preg_match_all</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"|<[^>]+>(.*)</[^>]+>|U"</span><span style="color: #007700">,<br /> </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"<b>example: </b><div align=left>this is a test</div>"</span><span style="color: #007700">,<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">PREG_PATTERN_ORDER</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">][</span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">", " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">][</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">][</span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">", " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">][</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
<p class="para">The above example will output:</p>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
<b>example: </b>, <div align=left>this is a test</div>
example: , this is a test
</pre></div>
</div>
<p class="para">
So, <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$out[0]</var></var> contains array of strings that matched full pattern,
and <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$out[1]</var></var> contains array of strings enclosed by tags.
</p>
</div>
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><strong><code>PREG_SET_ORDER</code></strong></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Orders results so that <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$matches[0]</var></var> is an array of first set
of matches, <var class="varname"><var class="varname">$matches[1]</var></var> is an array of second set of matches,
and so on.
<div class="informalexample">
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />preg_match_all</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"|<[^>]+>(.*)</[^>]+>|U"</span><span style="color: #007700">,<br /> </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"<b>example: </b><div align=\"left\">this is a test</div>"</span><span style="color: #007700">,<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">PREG_SET_ORDER</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">][</span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">", " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">][</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">][</span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">", " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$out</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">][</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
<p class="para">The above example will output:</p>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
<b>example: </b>, example:
<div align="left">this is a test</div>, this is a test
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><strong><code>PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE</code></strong></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
If this flag is passed, for every occurring match the appendant string
offset will also be returned. Note that this changes the value of
<em><code class="parameter">matches</code></em> into an array where every element is an
array consisting of the matched string at offset <em>0</em>
and its string offset into <em><code class="parameter">subject</code></em> at offset
<em>1</em>.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
<p class="para">
If no order flag is given, <strong><code>PREG_PATTERN_ORDER</code></strong> is
assumed.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">offset</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Normally, the search starts from the beginning of the subject string.
The optional parameter <em><code class="parameter">offset</code></em> can be used to
specify the alternate place from which to start the search (in bytes).
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
Using <em><code class="parameter">offset</code></em> is not equivalent to passing
<em>substr($subject, $offset)</em> to
<span class="function"><strong>preg_match_all()</strong></span> in place of the subject string,
because <em><code class="parameter">pattern</code></em> can contain assertions such as
<em class="emphasis">^</em>, <em class="emphasis">$</em> or
<em class="emphasis">(?<=x)</em>. See <span class="function"><a href="function.preg-match.html" class="function">preg_match()</a></span>
for examples.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.preg-match-all-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Returns the number of full pattern matches (which might be zero),
or <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> if an error occurred.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 changelog" id="refsect1-function.preg-match-all-changelog">
<h3 class="title">Changelog</h3>
<p class="para">
<table class="doctable informaltable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Version</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>5.4.0</td>
<td>
The <em><code class="parameter">matches</code></em> parameter became optional.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5.3.6</td>
<td>
Returns <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> if <em><code class="parameter">offset</code></em>
is higher than
<em><code class="parameter">subject</code></em> length.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5.2.2</td>
<td>
Named subpatterns now accept the
syntax <em>(?<name>)</em>
and <em>(?'name')</em> as well
as <em>(?P<name>)</em>. Previous versions
accepted only <em>(?P<name>)</em>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4.3.3</td>
<td>
The <em><code class="parameter">offset</code></em> parameter was added
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4.3.0</td>
<td>
The <strong><code>PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE</code></strong> flag was added
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.preg-match-all-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-4785">
<p><strong>Example #1 Getting all phone numbers out of some text.</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />preg_match_all</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"/\(? (\d{3})? \)? (?(1) [\-\s] ) \d{3}-\d{4}/x"</span><span style="color: #007700">,<br /> </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Call 555-1212 or 1-800-555-1212"</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$phones</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-4786">
<p><strong>Example #2 Find matching HTML tags (greedy)</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// The \\2 is an example of backreferencing. This tells pcre that<br />// it must match the second set of parentheses in the regular expression<br />// itself, which would be the ([\w]+) in this case. The extra backslash is<br />// required because the string is in double quotes.<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$html </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"<b>bold text</b><a href=howdy.html>click me</a>"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">preg_match_all</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"/(<([\w]+)[^>]*>)(.*?)(<\/\\2>)/"</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$html</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$matches</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">PREG_SET_ORDER</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /><br />foreach (</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$matches </span><span style="color: #007700">as </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$val</span><span style="color: #007700">) {<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"matched: " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$val</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"part 1: " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$val</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"part 2: " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$val</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">2</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"part 3: " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$val</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">3</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"part 4: " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$val</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #0000BB">4</span><span style="color: #007700">] . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />}<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>The above example will output:</p></div>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
matched: <b>bold text</b>
part 1: <b>
part 2: b
part 3: bold text
part 4: </b>
matched: <a href=howdy.html>click me</a>
part 1: <a href=howdy.html>
part 2: a
part 3: click me
part 4: </a>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-4787">
<p><strong>Example #3 Using named subpattern</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /><br />$str </span><span style="color: #007700">= <<<FOO<br /></span><span style="color: #DD0000">a: 1<br />b: 2<br />c: 3<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">FOO;<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">preg_match_all</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'/(?P<name>\w+): (?P<digit>\d+)/'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$str</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$matches</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">/* This also works in PHP 5.2.2 (PCRE 7.0) and later, however <br /> * the above form is recommended for backwards compatibility */<br />// preg_match_all('/(?<name>\w+): (?<digit>\d+)/', $str, $matches);<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">print_r</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$matches</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>The above example will output:</p></div>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => a: 1
[1] => b: 2
[2] => c: 3
)
[name] => Array
(
[0] => a
[1] => b
[2] => c
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => a
[1] => b
[2] => c
)
[digit] => Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => 2
[2] => 3
)
[2] => Array
(
[0] => 1
[1] => 2
[2] => 3
)
)
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.preg-match-all-seealso">
<h3 class="title">See Also</h3>
<p class="para">
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"><a href="pcre.pattern.html" class="link">PCRE Patterns</a></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.preg-match.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">preg_match()</a> - Perform a regular expression match</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.preg-replace.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">preg_replace()</a> - Perform a regular expression search and replace</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.preg-split.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">preg_split()</a> - Split string by a regular expression</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.preg-last-error.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">preg_last_error()</a> - Returns the error code of the last PCRE regex execution</span></li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
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