fnmatch in PHP

fnmatch — Match filename against a pattern
Syntax:

bool fnmatch ( string $pattern , string $string [, int $flags = 0 ] )
fnmatch() checks if the passed string would match the given shell wildcard pattern.

Parameters:

pattern
The shell wildcard pattern.

string
The tested string. This function is especially useful for filenames, but may also be used on regular strings.

The average user may be used to shell patterns or at least in their simplest form to '?' and '*' wildcards so using fnmatch() instead of preg_match() for frontend search expression input may be way more convenient for non-programming users.

flags
The value of flags can be any combination of the following flags, joined with the binary OR (|) operator.

A list of possible flags for fnmatch()
Flag Description
FNM_NOESCAPE Disable backslash escaping.
FNM_PATHNAME Slash in string only matches slash in the given pattern.
FNM_PERIOD Leading period in string must be exactly matched by period in the given pattern.
FNM_CASEFOLD Caseless match. Part of the GNU extension.
Return values: Returns TRUE if there is a match, FALSE otherwise.

Changelog ¶

Version Description
5.3.0 This function is now available on Windows platforms.


Example #1 Checking a color name against a shell wildcard pattern

<?php
if (fnmatch("*gr[ae]y", $color)) {
  echo "some form of gray ...";
}
?>


Warning
For now, this function is not available on non-POSIX compliant systems except Windows.