how to force preg_match preg_match_all to return only named parts of regex expression

Question

example:

<?php
$string = "This is some text written on 2010-07-18.";
preg_match('|(?<date>\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d)|i',$string,$arr_result);
print_r($arr_result);
?>

returns:

Array
(
    [0] => 2010-07-18
    [date] => 2010-07-18
    [1] => 2010-07-18
)

but I want it to be:

Array
(
    [date] => 2010-07-18
)

in php's pdo object there is an option that is filtering results from database by removing these duplicate numbered values : PDO::FETCH_ASSOC (http://www.php.net/manual/en/pdostatement.fetch.php). But I haven't seen similar modifier for the pcre functions in php yet.

Answer 1

I do not think you can make preg_* do it, but you can do it with a simple loop. But I don't see why those elements pose a problem.

Answer 2

$string = "This is some text written on 2010-07-18."; preg_match('|(?\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d)|i',$string,$arr_result); echo $arr_result['date'];