thejano/easy-php-regex

A human-readable regex builder for PHP

1.0.0 2025-02-20 00:42 UTC

Requires

• php: >=7.4

Requires (Dev)

• pestphp/pest: ^2.0

MIT

• Pshtiwan Mahmood

• php
• builder
• regex
• regex-builder

README

A Human-Readable Regex Builder for PHP

EasyRegex is a fluent and human-readable regex builder for PHP that simplifies constructing complex regular expressions without manually writing regex patterns.

Installation

To install this package using Composer, run:

composer require thejano/easy-php-regex

Usage

Creating Regex Patterns

Use the EasyRegex class to build and generate regex patterns fluently.

Example: Matching an Email Address

use TheJano\EasyRegex\EasyRegex;

$regex = (new EasyRegex())
    ->startAnchor()
    ->word()
    ->oneOrMore()
    ->add('@')
    ->word()
    ->oneOrMore()
    ->add('.')
    ->word()
    ->between(2, 5)
    ->endAnchor()
    ->toRegExp();

// Output: /^\w+@\w+\.\w{2,5}$/

Example: Validating a Strong Password

$regex = (new EasyRegex())
    ->startAnchor()
    ->hasLetter()
    ->hasDigit()
    ->hasSpecialCharacter()
    ->atLeast(8)
    ->endAnchor()
    ->toRegExp();

// Output: /^(?=.*[a-zA-Z])(?=.*\d)(?=.*[!@#$%^&*]).{8,}$/

Example: Matching a URL

$regex = (new EasyRegex())
    ->protocol()
    ->www()
    ->word()
    ->oneOrMore()
    ->tld()
    ->path()
    ->toRegExp();

// Output: /https?:\/\/(www\.)?\w+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}(\/\w*)*/

Available Methods

Character Classes

• digit() - Matches a digit (\d)
• word() - Matches a word character (\w)
• whitespace() - Matches a whitespace character (\s)
• nonWhitespace() - Matches a non-whitespace character (\S)
• letter() - Matches a letter ([a-zA-Z])
• anyCharacter() - Matches any character (.)

Quantifiers

• optional() - Matches zero or one times (?)
• exactly(int $n) - Matches exactly n times ({n})
• atLeast(int $n) - Matches at least n times ({n,})
• atMost(int $n) - Matches up to n times
• between(int $min, int $max) - Matches between min and max times ({min,max})
• oneOrMore() - Matches one or more times (+)
• zeroOrMore() - Matches zero or more times (*)

Grouping & Anchors

• startGroup() - Starts a non-capturing group ((?:)
• startCaptureGroup() - Starts a capturing group (()
• startNamedGroup(string $name) - Starts a named group ((?<name>)
• endGroup() - Ends a group ())
• startAnchor() - Matches the beginning of the string (^)
• endAnchor() - Matches the end of the string ($)

Lookaheads & Lookbehinds

• negativeLookahead(string $pattern) - Negative lookahead ((?!pattern))
• positiveLookahead(string $pattern) - Positive lookahead ((?=pattern))
• positiveLookbehind(string $pattern) - Positive lookbehind ((?<=pattern))
• negativeLookbehind(string $pattern) - Negative lookbehind ((?<!pattern))

Flags

• global() - Applies the global (g) flag
• caseInsensitive() - Applies the case-insensitive (i) flag
• multiline() - Applies the multiline (m) flag
• dotAll() - Applies the dot-all (s) flag
• sticky() - Applies the sticky (y) flag

Unicode Support

• unicodeChar(string $variant = '') - Matches a Unicode letter (\p{L})
• unicodeDigit() - Matches a Unicode digit (\p{N})
• unicodePunctuation() - Matches a Unicode punctuation (\p{P})
• unicodeSymbol() - Matches a Unicode symbol (\p{S})

Special Helpers

• escapeLiteral(string $text) - Escapes special characters
• ipv4Octet() - Matches an IPv4 octet ((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d))
• protocol() - Matches http or https
• www() - Matches optional www.
• tld() - Matches a top-level domain (\.[a-zA-Z]{2,})
• path() - Matches a URL path ((\/\w*)*)

Generating Regex Patterns

• toString() - Returns the raw regex pattern
• toRegExp() - Returns the full regex pattern wrapped in /.../

Running Tests

To run the test suite using Pest, execute:

vendor/bin/pest

License

This package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.

Author

Created by Pshtiwan Mahmood.