Is there a PHP function that can escape regex patterns before they are applied? -

is there php function can escape regex patterns before applied?

i looking along lines of c# regex.escape() function.

preg_quote() looking for:

description

string preg_quote ( string $str [, string $delimiter = null ] ) 

preg_quote() takes str , puts backslash in front of every character part of regular expression syntax. useful if have run-time string need match in text , string may contain special regex characters.

the special regular expression characters are: . \ + * ? [ ^ ] $ ( ) { } = ! < > | : -

parameters

str

the input string.

delimiter

if optional delimiter specified, escaped. useful escaping delimiter required pcre functions. / commonly used delimiter.

importantly, note if $delimiter argument not specified, delimiter - character used enclose regex, commonly forward slash (/) - not escaped. want pass whatever delimiter using regex $delimiter argument.

example - using preg_match find occurrences of given url surrounded whitespace:

$url = 'http://stackoverflow.com/questions?sort=newest';  // preg_quote escapes dot, question mark , equals sign in url (by // default) forward slashes (because pass '/' // $delimiter argument). $escapedurl = preg_quote($url, '/');  // enclose our regex in '/' characters here - same delimiter passed // preg_quote $regex = '/\s' . $escapedurl . '\s/'; // $regex now:  /\shttp\:\/\/stackoverflow\.com\/questions\?sort\=newest\s/  $haystack = "bla bla http://stackoverflow.com/questions?sort=newest bla bla"; preg_match($regex, $haystack, $matches);  var_dump($matches); // array(1) { //   [0]=> //   string(48) " http://stackoverflow.com/questions?sort=newest " // }