Matching the '\' pattern in PHP preg_replace()

[CD-RW]

Is it possible to match the '\' backslash RE escape character in a search pattern please? I have tried my best to find a way to match on this character, but no luck so far.

PHP Code:

php > $var = 'Now with the 50% discount it $offers the \best prices';

php > echo preg_replace('-\[\]\-', 'X', $var);
PHP Warning:  preg_replace(): No ending delimiter '-' found in php shell code on line 1

php > echo preg_replace('/\[\]\/', 'X', $var);
PHP Warning:  preg_replace(): No ending delimiter '/' found in php shell code on line 1

php > echo preg_replace('-\-', 'X', $var);
PHP Warning:  preg_replace(): No ending delimiter '-' found in php shell code on line 1

php > echo preg_replace('-\\-', 'X', $var);
PHP Warning:  preg_replace(): No ending delimiter '-' found in php shell code on line 1

php > echo preg_replace('-/\-', 'X', $var);
PHP Warning:  preg_replace(): No ending delimiter '-' found in php shell code on line 1 


Any help gratefully appreciated.

TIA

[pigpen]

PHP Code:

php > echo preg_replace('/\\\\/', 'X', $var);
Now with the 50% discount it $offers the Xbest prices

php > echo preg_replace('/\\\/', 'X', $var);
Now with the 50% discount it $offers the Xbest prices 


had my own fight with the backslash before ;-)

[CD-RW]

Thankyou pigpen. After all that I found the following oneliner that does it all, it even deals with the back and forward slashes as well.

preg_quote
(PHP 3 >= 3.0.9, PHP 4, PHP 5)

preg_quote -- Quote regular expression characters

Description

string preg_quote ( string str [, string delimiter] )

preg_quote() takes str and puts a backslash in front of every character that is part of the regular expression syntax. This is useful if you have a run-time string that you need to match in some text and the string may contain special regex characters.

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

PHP Code:

<?php
$keywords = '$40 for a g3/400';
$keywords = preg_quote($keywords, '/');
echo $keywords; // returns \$40 for a g3\/400
?>

Thankyou for your help anyway.

[pigpen]

Wow! I didn't even know this function! Thank YOU, CD-RW!!