Php search string (with wildcards)

Question

Is there a way to put a wildcard in a string? The reason why I am asking is because currently I have a function to search for a substring between two substrings (i.e grab th

Answer 1

wildcard pattern could be converted to regex pattern like this

function wildcard_match($pattern, $subject) {
  $pattern = strtr($pattern, array(
    '*' => '.*?', // 0 or more (lazy) - asterisk (*)
    '?' => '.', // 1 character - question mark (?)
  ));
  return preg_match("/$pattern/", $subject);
}

if string contents special characters, e.g. \.+*?^$|{}/'#, they should be \-escaped

don't tested:

function wildcard_match($pattern, $subject) {
  // quotemeta function has most similar behavior,
  // it escapes \.+*?^$[](), but doesn't escape |{}/'#
  // we don't include * and ?
  $special_chars = "\.+^$[]()|{}/'#";
  $special_chars = str_split($special_chars);
  $escape = array();
  foreach ($special_chars as $char) $escape[$char] = "\\$char";
  $pattern = strtr($pattern, $escape);
  $pattern = strtr($pattern, array(
    '*' => '.*?', // 0 or more (lazy) - asterisk (*)
    '?' => '.', // 1 character - question mark (?)
  ));
  return preg_match("/$pattern/", $subject);
}