[SOLVED] RegEX Match all that dont match expresion

[The14thGOD]

More confusion to the confusing regex =P

 

I want to match all non alpha-numeric and hyphens, i read this does it:

<?php $string = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9-]/','',$string);?>

Why does this do it? is it cause of the ^ in the brackets? I thought that was used as the starting point of the string (but I also havn't seen it inside the brackets, i think it's normally outside?).

 

So is ^ inside [] == ! ?

Thanks!

Justin

[nrg_alpha]

That pattern looks correct.. When dealign with ^, if it is at the very start of the pattern, this means start matching something at the beginning of the string.. but if it is the very first character in a character class like so: [^ ... ], it makes the character class negative.. so it will match (or replace in this case) any characters that are not within the class.

[The14thGOD]

thx!

[nrg_alpha]

You can read up about regex in these starter links:

 

http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorial/regular-expressions-part1---basic-syntax

http://www.regular-expressions.info/

http://weblogtoolscollection.com/regex/regex.php