php preg_match return position of last match

Question

With

preg_match($pattern, $subject, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE); 

is it possible to search a string in reverse? ie. return the position

Answer 1

"Greedy" is the key word here. * is by default greedy *? limits greediness to the bare minimum.

So the solution is to use the combination, e.g. (searching for last period followed by a whitespace):

/^.*\.\s(.*?)$/s

• ^ is the beginning of text
• .* eats as much as it can, including matching patterns
• \.\s is the period followed by a whitespace (what I am looking for)
• (.*?) eats as little as possible. Capture group () so I could address it as a match group.
• $ end of text
• s - makes sure newlines are ignored (not treated as $ and ^, . dot matches newline)