Formatting Strings into Regular Expression Patterns using PHP

Formatting Strings into Regular Expression Patterns using PHP

In software development, regular expressions are a powerful tool for matching patterns in strings. They are commonly
used for tasks such as validating user input, searching and replacing text, and more. In this article, we will
explore the logic behind a PHP function that formats a string into a regular expression pattern.

The function, named formatRobotsRule, takes in a single argument, $value, which represents
the string that needs to be formatted. The purpose of this function is to return a regular expression pattern that
can be used to match the input string against other strings.

The function begins by defining two arrays, $replacementsBeforeQuote and
$replacementsAfterQuote, which contain characters that need to be replaced before and after the string
is quoted. These arrays are used to handle wildcard characters in the input string.

The first array, $replacementsBeforeQuote, contains two key-value pairs that replace the wildcard
characters “*” and “$” with the strings “ASTERISK_WILDCARD” and “DOLLAR_WILDCARD“, respectively. The
purpose of this step is to temporarily replace the wildcard characters so that they can be safely quoted using the
preg_quote() function.

The second array, $replacementsAfterQuote, contains two key-value pairs that replace the strings
ASTERISK_WILDCARD” and “DOLLAR_WILDCARD” with the corresponding regular expression wildcards, “.*”
and “$”, respectively. The purpose of this step is to convert the temporary strings back into the original wildcard
characters so that they can be used in the regular expression pattern.

Next, the function uses the preg_quote() function to quote special characters in the input string so
that they can be used as literals in a regular expression. The first call to preg_quote() replaces the
special characters in the input string with the strings from $replacementsBeforeQuote. The second call
to preg_quote() replaces these strings with the corresponding special characters from
$replacementsAfterQuote.

Finally, the function returns the formatted string as a regular expression pattern by wrapping it in ‘/’ characters
and appending the regular expression flag ‘/i’ to indicate that the pattern should be matched case-insensitively.

In conclusion, the formatRobotsRule function provides a simple way to format a string into a regular
expression pattern that can be used to match strings with wildcard characters. The function performs the necessary
steps to handle wildcard characters, quote special characters, and set the case-insensitivity flag. By understanding
the logic behind this function, developers can gain a deeper understanding of regular expressions and their
applications in software development.

function stringToRule($value)
{
    $replacementsBeforeQuote = ['*' => '_ASTERISK_WILDCARD_', '$' => '_DOLLAR_WILDCARD_'];

    $replacementsAfterQuote = ['_ASTERISK_WILDCARD_' => '.*', '_DOLLAR_WILDCARD_' => '$'];

    return '/' . str_replace(array_keys($replacementsAfterQuote), array_values($replacementsAfterQuote), preg_quote(str_replace(array_keys($replacementsBeforeQuote), array_values($replacementsBeforeQuote), $value), '/')) . '/i';
}

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