Are there any specific guidelines or best practices recommended by the PHP manual regarding the use of preg_match() and eregi() functions?

When using the preg_match() and eregi() functions in PHP, it is recommended to use preg_match() over eregi() as eregi() is deprecated as of PHP 5.3.0. Additionally, it is important to properly escape any special characters in the regular expression pattern to avoid syntax errors or unexpected behavior.

// Using preg_match() instead of eregi() and properly escaping special characters
$pattern = '/^([a-z0-9_-]+)@([a-z0-9_-]+)\.([a-z]{2,6})$/i';
$email = 'example@email.com';

if (preg_match($pattern, $email)) {
    echo 'Valid email address';
} else {
    echo 'Invalid email address';
}