In what scenarios would using regular expressions with preg_match be more efficient or effective than other validation methods in PHP?

Regular expressions with preg_match are more efficient and effective for validation in PHP when dealing with complex patterns or formats that cannot be easily validated using simple string functions. For example, validating email addresses, phone numbers, or URLs would be more suited for regular expressions. Additionally, regular expressions offer more flexibility and customization in defining validation rules compared to built-in PHP functions. 

$email = "example@example.com";

if (preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$/", $email)) {
    echo "Valid email address";
} else {
    echo "Invalid email address";
}

Keywords

regular expressions preg_match validation methods efficiency effectiveness

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