This question already has an answer here:
I am trying to compare two sentences using PHP and regex like this:
$data = "I am a happy man with 2 kids";
if (preg_match('/^(?=.*I)(?=.*am)(?=.*happy)(?=.*with)(?=.*2)(?=.*kids)/i', $data)) {echo 'match';} else {echo 'not match';}
and that seems to work fine, but if I change the sentence to:
$data = "I am a happy man with 20 kids";
if (preg_match('/^(?=.*I)(?=.*am)(?=.*happy)(?=.*with)(?=.*2)(?=.*kids)/i', $data)) {echo 'match';} else {echo 'not match';}
It's still saying that matches. The problem is that is not matching the exact number and just checking if theres a number 2 on the other sentence.
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Add word boundaries:
$data = "I am a happy man with 20 kids";
if (preg_match('/^(?=.*I)(?=.*am)(?=.*happy)(?=.*with)(?=.*\b2\b)(?=.*kids)/i', $data)) {
// here ___^^ ^^
echo 'match';
} else {
echo 'not match';
}
You may want to add also in each lookahead, but the regex will become unredable
$data = "I am a happy man with 20 kids";
if (preg_match('/^(?=.*\bI\b)(?=.*\bam\b)(?=.*\bhappy\b)(?=.*\bwith\b)(?=.*\b2\b)(?=.*\bkids\b)/i', $data)) {
echo 'match';
} else {
echo 'not match';
}