'PHP's preg_match() to return a value in the string after a substring

I have an issue whereby I need to return a number value that exists after a fixed sub string regardless of the other characters in the string around it. I am sort of there, because the following works.

$string = "Created Ticket_Id#234 (Some info)";
preg_match("/Ticket Id_#([0-9]+\s)/", $string, $res);
print $res[1];

Outputs: 234

But then when I get the string as follows.

$string = "Created Ticket_Id#234";
preg_match("/Ticket Id_#([0-9]+\s)/", $string, $res);
print $res[1];

Outputs: nothing

Is there a better way of doing this without looking for the white space?

phpregex


Solution 1:[1]

Yes, just use \b, the word boundary special character class, instead of \s.

So your pattern would be:

/\bTicket_Id#([0-9]+)\b/

Note that I pulled the special character class out of the capturing parenthesis as you need not capture it.

Also I noticed that your string had Ticket_Id#234, while your regex had Ticket Id#234. You should change the underscore in your regex based on what the case really is.

Solution 2:[2]

Just remove the final \s

Depending on whether the string or the regular expression is correct

/Ticket_Id#([0-9]+)/

or

/Ticket Id_#([0-9]+)/

This will stop at the last digit found and return the searched number.

Solution 3:[3]

A few. You could use a word boundary:

"/Ticket Id_#([0-9]+)\b/"

Check against the end of the string:

"/Ticket Id_#([0-9]+)(\s|$)/"

Or just collect all the digits:

"/Ticket Id_#([0-9]+)/"

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Peter Mortensen
Solution 2 Peter Mortensen
Solution 3 FrankieTheKneeMan

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