What should be the RegEx if I want to find the text between the phrases " IF (NEW." and " !"?

Question

What should be the RegEx if I want to find the text between the phrases " IF (NEW." and " !"?

Likewise I am thinking of the pattern as $pattern = '/(?<= IF (NEW.)[^ !]+/';

I am matching it as

$input = $row4['ACTION_STATEMENT'];`/*BEGIN IF (NEW.name != OLD.name) THEN INSERT INTO jos_menuaudit set menuid=OLD.id, oldvalue = OLD.name, newvalue = NEW.name, field = "name"; END IF; IF (NEW.alias != OLD.alias) THEN INSERT INTO jos_menuaudit set menuid=OLD.id, oldvalue = OLD.alias, newvalue = NEW.alias, field = "alias"; END IF; END*/`
preg_match_all($pattern, $input, $captures);

What if I want $captures as an array, in which all values will be stored which will match with above pattern being in between of this pattern?

Answer 1

Try this:

preg_match("/IF \\(NEW\\.\\)(.*?)!/", $input, $captures);

Test:

$input = "foo bar IF (NEW.) capture this text! fu bah";
preg_match("/IF \\(NEW\\.\\)(.*?)!/", $input, $captures);

print_r($captures);

// ["IF (NEW.) capture this text!", " capture this text"]

Answer 2

You can use following pattern :

IF\s*?(NEW.[\s\S]*?!

Are you using perl?

Answer 3

You can try:

if(preg_match('#IF \(NEW\.([^!]*)!#',$input,$matches)) {
 echo "$matches[1]";
}

or

if(preg_match('#IF \(NEW\.(.*?)!#',$input,$matches)) {
 echo "$matches[1]";
}

If you want to allow any amount of white space between IF and (NEW you can use the regex:

#IF\s*\(NEW\.(.*?)!#

If you want to allow atleast one white space between IF and (NEW you can use the regex:

#IF\s+\(NEW\.(.*?)!#