Matching everything except some selected words

[Rowno]

Is it possible to match everything (using .*?) except for a few words or character combinations?

[effigy]

Something like this?

 

<pre>
<?php
echo $str = join('', range('a', 'z'));
echo '<hr>';
preg_match('/(??!m).)*/', $str, $matches);
print_r($matches);
?> 
</pre>

[Rowno]

How can I use that to match any word except ones that I define?

[effigy]

See the comment below:

 

<pre>
<?php
echo $str = 'apple orange banana strawberry';
echo '<hr>';
preg_match('/
	(?:
		(?!
			### Stop words go here:
			straw
		)
	.)*
/x', $str, $matches);
print_r($matches);
?> 
</pre>

[Rowno]

This doesn't exactly work because went I put the regex in a preg_replace, it only returned 's' not 'straw'.

[effigy]

<pre>
<?php
echo $str = 'apple orange banana strawberry kiwi grapefruit cherry grape';
echo '<hr>';

$keeps = array(
	'range',
	'straw',
	'grape',
	'orangutan',
);

$pattern = '/(' . join('|', $keeps) . ')/';

$pieces = preg_split($pattern, $str, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE | PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
print_r(preg_grep($pattern, $pieces));
?> 
</pre>