How can one ensure consistent behavior when using preg_match with special characters at the beginning of a word in PHP?

When using preg_match with special characters at the beginning of a word in PHP, it's important to escape the special characters with a backslash (\) to ensure consistent behavior. This will prevent the special characters from being interpreted as regex metacharacters and will match them literally in the string. 

$pattern = '/^\$special/';
$string = '$special word';
if (preg_match($pattern, $string)) {
    echo 'Match found!';
} else {
    echo 'No match found.';
}

Keywords

preg_match special characters beginning of a word consistent behavior PHP

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