PHP comparing a regex and a string

Question

preg_match('`/`', '/hello/how are you/now/4/details')

The above and below returns true. Problem is I need only the below comparison to return true.

preg_match('`/hello/how are you/now/\d+/details`', '/hello/how are you/now/4/details')

I have a list of regex patterns and I need to see if the input/needle matches exactly one of the regex as illustrated above

Help.

Answer 1

The function is looking for a match for the pattern in the string. / is there so it returns true. Use ^ at the beginning of the pattern to match the beginning of the string. Use $ at the end to indicate end of string.

Answer 2

First one will returns true because it finds / in the given string. If you want specific string match, as @JNF said use ^ and $ for beginning and ending of the string. To test your regex use https://www.debuggex.com it really helps you.