Rgular Expression - 1st alternative

Hi all.

I've got one problem with %subj%. I need to get 1st appearance of any
alternative pattern, but my regexp get last.

in $out[2] (input) is "columns FROM tables WHERE conditions ORDER BY sth
DESC LIMIT 1 OFFEST 0"

preg_match("/[[:space:]]*(.*)[[:space:]]+from[[:space:]]+(.*)[[:space:]]+whe
re[[:space:]]+(.*)[[:space:]]+(order by|group by|having|limit)(.*)/is",
$out[2], $out);

This will produce:
Array
(
[0] => columns FROM tables WHERE conditions ORDER BY sth DESC LIMIT 1
OFFEST 0
[1] => columns
[2] => tables
[3] => conditions ORDER BY sth DESC
// but here I need only "conditions"
[4] => LIMIT
// and here shloud be ORDER BY sth DESC LIMIT
[5] => 1 OFFEST 0
)

I was searchnig web and forums long time, but didn't found working advice.
I tried to use '?' and other pieces of regexp pattern, but I can't write
functional regexp.

Thanx for any advices.

Emo

On Thu, 9 Oct 2003 19:54:09 +0200, Emo <emo@emo-cz.net> wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> I've got one problem with %subj%. I need to get 1st appearance of any
> alternative pattern, but my regexp get last.

Remember .* is greedy by default you need to use .*? also instead of using
[[:space:]] I might suggest using \s, it will make it shorter

>
> in $out[2] (input) is "columns FROM tables WHERE conditions ORDER BY sth
> DESC LIMIT 1 OFFEST 0"
>
> preg_match("/[[:space:]]*(.*)[[:space:]]+from[[:space:]]+(.*)
> [[:space:]]+whe
> re[[:space:]]+(.*)[[:space:]]+(order by|group by|having|limit)(.*)/is",
> $out[2], $out);

/^\s*(.*?)\s+from\s+(.*?)\s+where\s+(.*?)\s+(order by|group
by|having|limit)(.*)/is

>
> This will produce:
> Array
> (
> [0] => columns FROM tables WHERE conditions ORDER BY sth DESC LIMIT 1
> OFFEST 0
> [1] => columns
> [2] => tables
> [3] => conditions ORDER BY sth DESC
> // but here I need only "conditions"
> [4] => LIMIT
> // and here shloud be ORDER BY sth DESC LIMIT
> [5] => 1 OFFEST 0
> )

I'm not entirely clear how you want to capture the order by|group by| etc..

Curt
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