Preg_match() ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

[TEENFRONT]

Hey

 

im usuing preg_match() to try match a search term to a file title in a directory.

 

Now i have the directory listing script working fine, it basically lists all files in a directory, simple.

 

But i tried making it only list files matching a search term.

 

// $filetitle is something like 'Transformers'
// $search is 'Transformers'

if(preg_match('/$search/', $filetitle)) {

echo "$filetitle Contains '$search'<br />";  // success!
}
else { 
echo "$filetitle - Doesn't contain '$search' <br />"; // Doesnt match, not good.
}

 

as a test im getting it to loop through all the files in the directory and say if it containts the search term or not.

 

All i get in the output is

 

Transformers - Doesn't contain 'Transformers'

otherfilm  - Doesn't contain 'Transformers'

otherfilm  - Doesn't contain 'Transformers'

etc etc

 

Actually...i may have just figured out my issue... preg_match uses $ as an end sign for the search right..so basically its matching nothing...hmm.. in that case, new questions...

 

Whats the best way to search the file names and try matching them to a search term as if i cannot use a variable in preg_match...?

[DarkWater]

You need to use double quotes for variables to parse in.

 

<?php
$regex = "/$search/i";
if (preg_match($regex, $filetitle)) {
//etc

[TEENFRONT]

i ended up with this..

 

if(fnmatch("/$search/", $filetitle)) {

 

this works...

 

whats the difference with preg and fn?

[Ken2k7]

Well fn is short for file name (I assume), so it's used for matching file names. preg_match() matches a pattern (if one exists) in a string.

[effigy]

preg uses PCRE patterns; fnmatch uses shell wildcard patterns.

 

P.S. Always quote variables that are used in expressions: $regex = '/' . preg_quote($search) . '/i';