fnmatch

(PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5, PHP 7)

Match filename against a pattern

bool fnmatch ( string $pattern, string $string [, int $flags = 0 ] )

fnmatch() checks if the passed string would match the given shell wildcard pattern.

Parameters:

pattern

The shell wildcard pattern.

string

The tested string. This function is especially useful for filenames, but may also be used on regular strings.

The average user may be used to shell patterns or at least in their simplest form to '?' and '*' wildcards so using fnmatch() instead of preg_match() for frontend search expression input may be way more convenient for non-programming users.

flags

The value of flags can be any combination of the following flags, joined with the binary OR (|) operator.

A list of possible flags for **fnmatch()**
`Flag`	Description
`FNM_NOESCAPE`	Disable backslash escaping.
`FNM_PATHNAME`	Slash in string only matches slash in the given pattern.
`FNM_PERIOD`	Leading period in string must be exactly matched by period in the given pattern.
`FNM_CASEFOLD`	Caseless match. Part of the GNU extension.

Returns:

Returns TRUE if there is a match, FALSE otherwise.

Changelog:

5.3.0

This function is now available on Windows platforms.

Examples:

Checking a color name against a shell wildcard pattern

<?php
if (fnmatch("*gr[ae]y", $color)) {
  echo "some form of gray ...";
}
?>