What are the advantages and disadvantages of using regular expressions for internal site search in PHP?

Regular expressions can be a powerful tool for internal site search in PHP as they allow for more flexible and complex search patterns. However, they can also be more resource-intensive and harder to maintain compared to simpler search methods. It is important to weigh the advantages and disadvantages before implementing regular expressions for internal site search.

// Example of using regular expressions for internal site search in PHP

$search_query = $_GET['search_query']; // Get the search query from the user input

// Perform the search using a regular expression
$results = array();
foreach ($data as $item) {
    if (preg_match("/$search_query/i", $item)) {
        $results[] = $item;
    }
}

// Display the search results
foreach ($results as $result) {
    echo $result . "<br>";
}