How can PHP developers efficiently test and debug regular expressions?

Regular expressions can be complex and challenging to debug. To efficiently test and debug regular expressions in PHP, developers can use online regex testers like regex101.com or use built-in functions like preg_match() to check if the expression matches the desired pattern. Additionally, using tools like Xdebug can help step through the code and see how the regular expression is being applied. 

$pattern = '/^[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{4}$/';
$string = '123-45-6789';

if (preg_match($pattern, $string)) {
    echo 'The string matches the pattern.';
} else {
    echo 'The string does not match the pattern.';
}

Keywords

regex debugging testing preg_match error_reporting

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