PHP Regex - optional Unicode UTF-8 character (Ø?) is not working-CodePudding

I have string where it contains Ø character but not always:

$pattern = '/Ø?\d [a-z-] Ø?\d /i';
if (preg_match($pattern, 'Ø66-SX-76', $matched)) {
    print_r($matched);
}
if (preg_match($pattern, '58-SX-72', $matched)) {
    print_r($matched);
}
if (preg_match($pattern, 'Ø66-SX-Ø76', $matched)) {
    //only this one matches
    print_r($matched);
}

These are a basic example of the string I am processing.

Can somebody explain why the first 2 cases are not matching?

When I try on regexpal.com this pattern is working for all case, but on PHP it is not working

CodePudding user response：

You can instruct the regex engine to treat the input string as utf-8. Add the u modifier at the end:

$pattern = '/Ø?\d [a-z-] Ø?\d /iu';

CodePudding user response：

Thanks to @Joey, adding wrapping Ø in parantheses worked:

$pattern = '/(Ø)?\d [a-z-] (Ø)?\d /i';