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POHow can I preg_match a character-run of individual characters?
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18050902
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2013-08-05T05:07:54.153
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2013-08-05T05:57:20.030
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2013-08-05T05:57:20.030
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Using <pre><code>(a{4,}) </code></pre> I can match 4 or more of a specific characters in a row <blockquote> a aaa aaaaaa aa </blockquote> and with <pre><code>([0-9]{4,}) </code></pre> I can match 4 or more of a specific group of characters in a row <blockquote> 1 123 1234321 12 </blockquote> But I'm looking for a way to catch runs of an individual character in a string of characters. Meaning: I have a collection of strings in the range <code>[a-zA-z0-9]</code>. Whenever one of these characters is repeated more than 4 times, the regex should match up. To give you a more practical example: in... <blockquote> This is Teeeeeeest version 1.0.33333.4 </blockquote> ...it should be able to match the run of the <code>e</code> character and the run of the <code>3</code> character. Now, the following clearly doesn't satisfy my needs... <pre><code>([a-zA-Z0-9]{4,}) </code></pre> ...since it would simply catch all runs of the allowed chars. But I only need to catch the moments where a single character is repeated 4 or more times. I really want to avoid looping all 64 possible characters through individual regexes with a <code>for(...)</code> and I'm sure there "must be a way" to do it with one regex. But since I've tried near to everything and I'mm close to hitting my head against the wall, I opted-in to hope that someone can help me with this by pushing me in the right direction. How can I <code>preg_match</code> a character-run of individual characters? (aka: What would the regex look like?) EDIT (after accepting answer) Thanks for your answer(s) and comment(s),because the only option I found to do what I wanted was <blockquote> (a{4,}|b{4,}|c{4,}|d{4,}|e{4,}|f{4,}|g{4,}|h{4,}|i{4,}|j{4,}|k{4,}|l{4,}|m{4,}|n{4,}|o{4,}|p{4,}|q{4,}|r{4,}|s{4,}|t{4,}|u{4,}|v{4,}|w{4,}|x{4,}|y{4,}|z{4,}|A{4,}|B{4,}|C{4,}|D{4,}|E{4,}|F{4,}|G{4,}|H{4,}|I{4,}|J{4,}|K{4,}|L{4,}|M{4,}|N{4,}|O{4,}|P{4,}|Q{4,}|R{4,}|S{4,}|T{4,}|U{4,}|V{4,}|W{4,}|X{4,}|Y{4,}|Z{4,}|0{4,}|1{4,}|2{4,}|3{4,}|4{4,}|5{4,}|6{4,}|7{4,}|8{4,}|9{4,}) </blockquote> but that just didn't feel good... and it sure doesn't look healthy either, does it? ;) Anyway, I ended up with this... <pre><code>preg_match_all('#([a-zA-Z0-9])\1{3}#', 'This is Teeeeeeest version 1.0.33333.4', $matches)); var_dump($matches); </code></pre>
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<php><regex><character>
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How can I preg_match a character-run of individual characters?
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1. COI think this is a job for backreferences: http://www.regular-expressions.info/brackets.html
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