How can regular expressions be utilized in PHP to search for specific patterns in text or XML files?

Regular expressions in PHP can be utilized to search for specific patterns in text or XML files by using functions like preg_match() or preg_match_all(). These functions allow you to define a pattern using regular expressions and then search for matches within the text or XML file. By using regular expressions, you can search for complex patterns like email addresses, URLs, or specific words within a larger text. 

<?php
// Example of using regular expressions to search for email addresses in a text file

$text = file_get_contents('example.txt'); // Read the text file
$pattern = '/[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}/'; // Regular expression pattern for email addresses

if (preg_match_all($pattern, $text, $matches)) {
    echo "Email addresses found: ";
    foreach ($matches[0] as $match) {
        echo $match . "\n";
    }
} else {
    echo "No email addresses found.";
}
?>

Keywords

Regular expressions PHP search patterns XML files

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