Function to escape regex patterns before applied in PHP

Use preg_quote() function in PHP to escape regex patterns before it is applied in run time. The preg_quote() function puts a backslash in front of every character within the specified string that would be a part of the regex syntax in PHP, thereby making them escape sequences. These characters include:
. \ + * ? [ ^ ] $ ( ) { } = ! | : – #

Syntax:

string preg_quote( string $str, string $delimiter = NULL )

Parameters:

  • $str: This parameter holds the input string.
  • $delimiter: It is optional parameter. The most common delimiter is ‘/’ as it is not a special regex character that would be normally handled by preg_quote(). Primarily used in conjunction with preg_replace() function.

Returns: It returns the delimiter containing string.

Below programs illustrates the preg_quote() function.



Program 1:

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<?php
  
// Create a string which need to be escaped
$str = "Welcome to GfG! (+ The course fee. $400) /";
      
echo "Before Processing - " . $str . PHP_EOL;
  
// Use preg_quote() on above string
$processedStr = preg_quote($str);
  
// Display the output
echo "After Processing - " . $processedStr;
  
?>

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Output:


Before Processing - Welcome to GfG! (+ The course fee. $400) /
After Processing - Welcome to GfG\! \(\+ The course fee\. \$400\) /





Notice that a backslash was put in front of every special character, but not for the forward slash. For that, we can use the delimiter, see the program below:


Program 2











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<?php 


  


// Create a string which need to be escaped 


$str = "Welcome to GfG! (+ The course fee. $400) /"; 


      


echo "Before Processing - " . $str . PHP_EOL; 


  


// Use preg_quote() on above string 


$processedString = preg_quote($str, '/'); 


  


// Display the output 


echo "After Processing - " . $processedString; 


  


?> 



















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Output:


Before Processing - Welcome to GfG! (+ The course fee. $400) /
After Processing - Welcome to GfG\! \(\+ The course fee\. \$400\) \/





Below program demonstrates the combined use of preg_quote() and preg_replace() function.


Program 3:











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<?php 


  


// PHP Program emphasize the word within * * and  


// use font style to italic within [ ] using 


// both preg_quote() and preg_replace() function 


  


$str = "The *article* was written by [GFG]"; 


      


// The words to be formatted 


$word1 = "*article*"; 


$word2 = "[GFG]"; 


      


// The first string only applies bold to word 1, 


// preg_quote() escapes the * * 


$processedStr1 = preg_replace("/" . preg_quote($word1, '/') 


            . "/", "<strong>" . $word1 . "</strong>", $str); 


  


echo "BOLD ONLY - " . $processedStr1 . PHP_EOL; 


  


// The second string only applies italics to  


// word 2, preg_quote() escapes the [ ] 


$processedStr2 = preg_replace("/" . preg_quote($word2, '/') 


            . "/", "<em>" . $word2 . "</em>", $str); 


  


echo "ITALIC ONLY - " . $processedStr2 . PHP_EOL; 


  


// Combining both text formattings and display 


$bothReplacementsCombined = preg_replace("/" . 


            preg_quote($word2, '/') . "/", 


            "<em>" . $word2 . "</em>", $processedStr1); 


  


echo "BOTH COMBINED - " . $bothReplacementsCombined; 


  


?> 



















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Output:


BOLD ONLY - The *article* was written by [GFG]
ITALIC ONLY - The *article* was written by [GFG]
BOTH COMBINED - The *article* was written by [GFG]





Note: To notice the application of the text formatting tags, you should run PHP on your local server and echo to the browser.





    

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