"Unknown modifier 'g' in..." when using preg_match in PHP?

Question

This is the regex i'm trying to use:

/^(\w|\.|-)+?@(\w|-)+?\.\w{2,4}($|\.\w{2,4})$/gim

I found it on this site, and it works great when i try it out there. But as soon as i place it in my code i get this message:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Unknown modifier 'g' in C:\xampp\htdocs\swebook\includes\classes.php on line 22

Can anyone explain what's wrong, and why it's working on that website and not in my code?

Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

Remove the g in gim at the end - php does not have the global modifier because the functions you call decide if it is global or not.

Answer 2

There is no modifier g for preg_match. Instead you preg_match_all function.

So instead of:

preg_match(/^(\w|\.|-)+?@(\w|-)+?\.\w{2,4}($|\.\w{2,4})$/gim,....)

use:

preg_match_all(/^(\w|\.|-)+?@(\w|-)+?\.\w{2,4}($|\.\w{2,4})$/im,....