php-regexHow to use word boundary in PHP regex?

Word boundary is a special character used in regular expressions to match the beginning or end of a word. In PHP, it is represented by the \b character.

Example code

$string = 'This is a test string';

if (preg_match('/\btest\b/', $string)) {
    echo 'Matched!';
}

Output example

Matched!

Code explanation

• $string = 'This is a test string';: This is the string we are searching in.
• /\btest\b/: This is the regular expression. The \b characters indicate that we are looking for the word "test" and not a substring of it.
• preg_match('/\btest\b/', $string): This is the function call to preg_match() which searches for a match in the given string.
• echo 'Matched!';: This is the code that is executed if a match is found.

Helpful links

• PHP preg_match() Function
• Regular Expressions Tutorial

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