ereg vs preg_match

[sde]

which method do you use to match regular expressions in php? i don't understand the differences.

[bdl]

I use preg_match() mainly because I prefer working with the PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) syntax vs. 'regular' syntax. It has been estimated that the preg_ PCRE functions have a performance edge over using ereg_ style functions.

http://us2.php.net/PCRE
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/pcre.pattern.syntax.php

[sde]

thanks b!

[bdl]

Sure. It occurred to me later that in alot of cases if you're matching something simple, ereg() or even strpos() are more than adequate to handle the match. OTOH, preg_match() does give you, alot more flexibility and power through the PCRE style expressions.

[idx]

I prefer preg_* merely for the perl-compatibility, but I'll certainly take any speed benefits that come along with it. Unless I'm doing some basic string matching, I'll pretty much stick with preg_ .

-r