CFLib.org – Common Function Library Project

Description:
stringFind() is a melding of reFind() and reMatch(). It returns the match as well as all sub-expression matches as pos and len values (similar to reFind()), as well as the substring that the pos & len values refer to (like reMatch()). Finds one or all matches. This is similar to existing CFLib functions, preg_match_all() and reFindAll(), but more-closely matches its native counterparts.

Return Values:
An array of structs, similar to reFind() when set to return subexpressions.

Example:

string = "This is a string that has words of differing lengths, and I'm gonna use stringFind() to return the words that are five or six characters long";
pattern = "\b(\w{5,6})\b";
result = stringFind(pattern, string, true, 1, false);
writeDump(result);

Parameters:

Full UDF Source:

/**
 * Returns matched substrings and subexpressions from a string based on a regular expression pattern
 * v1.0 by Adam Cameron
 * 
 * @param pattern      A regular expression to match. (Required)
 * @param string      A string to find matches in. (Required)
 * @param all      Whether to match one (default) or all matches. (Optional)
 * @param start      The position in the string to start looking for matches. (Optional)
 * @param caseSensitive      Whether to do a case-sensitive or case-insensitive (default) match. (Optional)
 * @return An array of structs, similar to reFind() when set to return subexpressions. 
 * @author Adam Cameron (adamcameroncoldfusion@gmail.com) 
 * @version 1.0, September 29, 2012 
 */
array function stringFind(required string pattern, required string string, boolean all=false, numeric start=1, boolean caseSensitive=false){
    var result    = [];
    var matches    = [];
    var i        = 0;
    var match    = "";

    do {
        if (caseSensitive){
            matches = reFind(pattern, string, start, true);
        }else{
            matches = reFindNoCase(pattern, string, start, true);
        }
        // if we have a match, we need to extract the matched strings too
        if (matches.pos[1]){
            matches.string = [];
            for (i=1; i <= arrayLen(matches.pos); i++){
                if (matches.len[i]){
                    match = mid(string, matches.pos[i], matches.len[i]);
                }else{
                    match = "";
                }
                arrayAppend(matches.string, match);
            }
            arrayAppend(result, matches);
            // if we were only after one match: we're done...
            if (!all){
                break;
            }
            // ... otherwise shimmy along to after this match, ready to look for the next one
            start = matches.pos[1] + matches.len[1];
        }
    } while(matches.pos[1]);
    return result;
}