PHP mb_ereg_search() Function

The mb_ereg_search() is a PHP function used to search & match for a regular expression pattern in a string using multi-byte characters. It is similar to preg_match() but works with multi-byte characters.

Syntax:

mb_ereg_search(?string $pattern = null, ?string $options = null): bool

Parameters: This function accepts the two parameters that are described below:

• pattern: A regular expression pattern search for. It must be a valid regular expression for searching for a specific pattern in the string.
• options:  This is an optional parameter. A string that specifies the search options. 

Return Value: This function returns “true” if the multibyte string matches with a given regular expression otherwise returns “false”.

Example 1:  The following code demonstrates the mb_ereg_search() function.

PHP

<?php
$string = "Hello, world!";

mb_regex_encoding("UTF-8");
mb_ereg_search_init($string);

if (mb_ereg_search("world")) {
    echo "Found 'world' in the string\n";
}
?>

Output:

Found 'world' in the string  

Example 2: The following program demonstrates the mb_ereg_serach() function.

PHP

<?php
$targetString = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.";
$pattern = "america";

mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");
mb_ereg_search_init($targetString, $pattern);


if (mb_ereg_search()) {
    echo "The pattern was found in the target string.\n";
}
else {
    echo "The pattern was not found in the target string.\n";
}
?>

Output:

The pattern was not found in the target string.

Reference: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mb-ereg-search.php