using apache's mod_rewrite to parse SEO friendly URL's

Question

How do I convert something like

me.com/profile/24443/quincy-jones

to

me.com/profile.php?id=24443

or something

Answer 1

This should work for both:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+).*$ $1.php?id=$2 [L]

Explanation:

^           - beginning of the string
([^/])      - first group that doesn't contain /
              will match both 'profile' and 'store'
              will also be referenced by $1 later
/           - first slash separator
([^/])      - second group, id in your case
              will be referenced by $2
.*          - any ending of the request uri
$           - end of request string

You can also make it more precise so only the two request are rewritten and only digits are accepted as id:

RewriteRule ^((profile|store))/(\d+).*$ $1.php?id=$2 [L]