PCRE to find all possible matching values

Question

I am using PCRE in PHP, and I need to find a way to generate say an array of all possible matching values. Any ideas?

For example if I had R[2-9]{1} I would want: R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9

Thanks for the help, -Eric

Answer 1

PCRE does not have the ability to generate sample strings based on a regular expression. I do not know of a PHP library that does. Libraries that can do this usually support only limited regex flavors and need artificial restrictions for regexes like R[2-9]* that can match an infinite number of strings.

If you only need to do this for very simple regexes like R[2-9] then it shouldn't be to hard to either:

• Parse the regex in your own code to generate the sample values, or to use another mechanism.
• Or to use your own mechanism to specify "R followed by a digit between 2 and 9" from which your code can then generate both the regex and the list of sample values.
• Or, if the regexes are hard-coded in your source code, just to type out the list of values by hand.