Word delimiters? preg_match PHP

potworny
potworny used Ask the Experts™
on
Hi there...

I am going to kill myself with a spoon in a minute...

I'd like to match string that begin with the word "ball":

I tried the following:
/\bball/im = no luck
/\bball\b/im = no luck
/ball/ = positive
I'd like this to match as follows
 
Ball is red. = match
Balls are red = match
RedBall is red = no match

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dvz-

Commented:
try

/^ball.*/
potworny

Author

Commented:
And what about ball in the following sentences? :)



This is a ball that is red. = match
I have a lot of balling to do. = match

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Terry WoodsIT Guru
Most Valuable Expert 2011

Commented:
/\bball/im
is correct - can you post your code, and maybe I can find a problem with it?
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dvz-

Commented:
hrm...

that's odd.

$regex = '/^[bB]all.*/';

is saying to match 'ball' as the first chars of the string, and any other non new-line character after (.*).
potworny

Author

Commented:
The database contains:

/\bball/i

$query = "SELECT blackword_pattern FROM tbl_blackwords";
 
$countRows = $db->query($query);
while( $countRow = $db->fetch_array($countRows)){
      if( preg_match($countRow['blackword_pattern'], $string) ) return true; # found something
}
 
return false; #found nothing

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IT Guru
Most Valuable Expert 2011
Commented:
Can you print out the contents of $countRow['blackword_pattern'] just to be sure it's what you expect. For example, sometimes result array key names need to be upper case so the value you're wanting might be $countRow['BLACKWORD_PATTERN']. Or something else might be happening which still makes it worth checking.

Secondly, can you output the contents of $string, and check that is what you expect too.
potworny

Author

Commented:
I made a stupid mistake. Yes.
The database contains "/\bball/im"
There should be "/\\bball/im"
(double backslash)

Thank you very much for your help guys. You saved one life :)

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