how to search for patterns with special characters?

[mctrivia]

The following code works as long as the $tag variable does not contain a $ symbole(and presumably other special symbols as well)  how can I easily replace all special symbols with there regexp equivalents?  Is there a useful function that I can't find like mysql_real_escape_string works for mySQL?

 

$this->code = preg_replace('/<TEMPLATE_' . $tag . '>/',$value . '',$this->code);

[mctrivia]

this may not be the best way but it works:

$from=array('/\./','/\+/','/\*/','/\?/','/\^/','/\$/','/\[/','/\]/','/\(/','/\)/','/\|/','/\{/','/\}/','/\//',"/\'/",'/\#/');
$to=array('\\\.','\\\+','\\\*','\\\?','\\\^','\\\$','\\\[','\\\]','\\\(','\\\)','\\\|','\\\{','\\\}','\\\/',"\\\'",'\\\#');
$tag = preg_replace($from,$to,$tag);
$this->code = preg_replace('/<TEMPLATE_' . $tag . '>/',$value . '',$this->code);

 

goes through and adds a \ in front of all(I think) the special characters.

[requinix]

The best way would be with preg_quote.