How Can I Find Multiple String Occurrences in PHP Using `preg_match_all`?

Identifying Multiple String Occurrences Using preg_match_all in PHP

The preg_match function in PHP allows for finding matches within a string, but it only identifies the first occurrence. To detect multiple occurrences of the same string, the preg_match_all function is the appropriate tool.

Consider the following example, where the goal is to determine if a specific string appears twice within a paragraph:

$string = "/brown fox jumped [0-9]/";

$paragraph = "The brown fox jumped 1 time over the fence. The green fox did not. Then the brown fox jumped 2 times over the fence"

Using preg_match_all, the syntax would be as follows:

if (preg_match_all($string, $paragraph, $matches)) {
  echo count($matches[0]) . " matches found";
}else {
  echo "match NOT found";
}

In this code, the preg_match_all function returns the number of matches identified within the paragraph. The $matches array stores the actual matches. When applied to the example above, it will output the following:

2 matches found

Therefore, preg_match_all is the preferred function for detecting multiple occurrences of a string in PHP, providing the count of matches and capturing the actual matches for further processing if necessary.

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