php regex named groups

can someone tell me how to use named groups syntax in PHP?

I'm trying to parse a simple math equ开发者_如何学Goation, for example someVariable!=someValue.

I'd like to get 3 values from matching operation, stored in 3 variable variable, operator, value.

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Is this basically what you're looking for?

$equation = 'someVariable!=someValue';
$matches = array();
preg_match('~^(\w+)([!=]+)(\w+)$~', $equation, $matches);

$variable = $matches[1];
$operator = $matches[2];
$value = $matches[3];

The actual regular expression is pretty silly, but I assume you already have that part figured out.

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http://php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.syntax.php

see 'subpatterns' and 'back references'