Thread: PHP preg_replace not working as expected

i'm using following code apply html tags chat style collection of lines.

php code:

while ($char=mysql_fetch_assoc($chars)) {
    $pattern="/%s:(.*?)([01]?[0-9]:[0-5][0-9])\\s*$/m";
    if ($char['casesensitive']==0) { $pattern .= "i"; }
    $pattern=sprintf($pattern, $char['name']);
    $replace=sprintf('%s:<span style="color:%s;">$1</span> $2', $char['name'], $char['color']);
    $caption=preg_replace($pattern, $replace, $caption);
} 


the database query , sprintf coded correctly , return proper values, , $caption defined before loop shown. have tested many times. have taken values have been passed preg_replace, , run them on local installation of php, replaces text expected. however, on webserver i'm attempting use on, pattern doesn't match , doesn't modify $caption @ all.
i'm attempting replace lines this:

html code:

<br>name: text colored. 8:47

with this:

html code:

<br>name:<span style="color:color;"> text colored.</span> 8:47

i'm using preg_replace several other times perform similar operations in same script, , works perfectly.
both installations of php version 5.3.8.

have tried preg_match( first.

if cant match, problem pattern not being correct.

tend use single quotes ' rather double quotes " when using regular expressions. unfortunately dont have regexbuddy on pc cant check pattern. in php quotes different , can have different behaviours.

also, should check see if preg_replace( retuning null) way can determine if pattern has become invalid.

preg_replace() returns array if subject parameter array, or string otherwise.

if matches found, new subject returned, otherwise subject returned unchanged or null if error occurred.

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