[SOLVED] Allow parenthesis...

[Maq]

I have a regular expression

"/({0,1}^(*[A-Za-z0-9_-]+@[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.([A-Za-z0-9_-][A-Za-z0-9_]+)$){0,1}/"

 

I want to be able to recognize and email address by itself or have parenthesis around it.  I tried adding (* in the beginning and )* at the end but PHP doesn't like it.  I'm not very good with regex, and help is appreciated.  Thanks.

[effigy]

Parentheses are metacharacters, so they must be escaped if you want a literal: \( \). Also, use ? instead of {0,1}. You need to keep your anchors in place to have them take effect: /^\(?pattern\)?$/.

[DarkWater]

You need to escape them because they're a valid regex character.  \(

[Maq]

Like this:

 

/(^(\(?*[A-Za-z0-9_-]+@[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.([A-Za-z0-9_-][A-Za-z0-9_]+\))?$)/

[effigy]

Why so many parentheses? What preg_ function are you using? Are you using the matches?

[Maq]

I'm using preg_match_all.  Sorry, I'm just not familiar with regex because I usually just google what I need.  But overall I just need to find a regex to locate emails with and without parenthesis around it.  e.g. tim@yahoo.com  and (tim@yahoo.com).

 

Thanks,

Tim

[effigy]

How about something generic like this?

 

<pre>
<?php
$data = "I'm using preg_match_all.  Sorry, I'm just not familiar with regex because I usually just google what I need.  But overall I just need to find a regex to locate emails with and without parenthesis around it.  e.g. tim@yahoo.com  and (tim@yahoo.com).";
preg_match_all('/\b[^@\s]+@\S+?\.[a-z]+\b/i', $data, $matches);
print_r($matches)
?> 
</pre>

[Maq]

Great, thanks effigy, works perfectly.  Could I ask what the purpose of the 'i' at the end is for?

[DarkWater]

Case insensitivity.

[Maq]

Oh ok thanks.  I took a class on foundations and learned about machines and regular expressions but don't remember anything, as you can see.  Thanks for your help though, bye.

[effigy]

Anything after the ending delimiter is considered a modifier.