PREG_QUOTE(3)								 1							     PREG_QUOTE(3)

preg_quote - Quote regular expression characters

SYNOPSIS
string preg_quote NULL (string $str, [string $delimiter]) DESCRIPTION
preg_quote(3) takes $str and puts a backslash in front of every character that is part of the regular expression syntax. This is useful if you have a run-time string that you need to match in some text and the string may contain special regex characters. The special regular expression characters are: . + * ? [ ^ ] $ ( ) { } = ! < > | : - PARAMETERS
o $str - The input string. o $delimiter - If the optional $delimiter is specified, it will also be escaped. This is useful for escaping the delimiter that is required by the PCRE functions. The / is the most commonly used delimiter. RETURN VALUES
Returns the quoted (escaped) string. CHANGELOG
+--------+--------------------------------+ |Version | | | | | | | Description | | | | +--------+--------------------------------+ | 5.3.0 | | | | | | | The - character is now quoted | | | | +--------+--------------------------------+ EXAMPLES
Example #1 preg_quote(3) example <?php $keywords = '$40 for a g3/400'; $keywords = preg_quote($keywords, '/'); echo $keywords; // returns $40 for a g3/400 ?> Example #2 Italicizing a word within some text <?php // In this example, preg_quote($word) is used to keep the // asterisks from having special meaning to the regular // expression. $textbody = "This book is *very* difficult to find."; $word = "*very*"; $textbody = preg_replace ("/" . preg_quote($word, '/') . "/", "<i>" . $word . "</i>", $textbody); ?> NOTES
Note This function is binary-safe. SEE ALSO
PCRE Patterns, escapeshellcmd(3). PHP Documentation Group PREG_QUOTE(3)