PHP how to replace \\ with \ using preg_replace

Question

i want to replace \\\\ with \\ in PHP i tried this code but it doesn't work any idea ?

$var= preg_replace('/\\\\/', "\\", $var);

thanks a lot

Answer 1

Use stripcslashes() or stripslashes() instead. There is no good reason for regular expressions here and on the other hand they are more expensive than the built-in functions.

Answer 2

Is there a particular reason you want to use preg_replace ? You should be using str_replace :

php > echo str_replace("\\\\", "\\", "I\\\\'ve had");
I\'ve had

The problem is that with preg_replace, you have to escape the \\ for PHP's interpreter AND you have to escape \\ again for regexp's interpreter. So basically, you'd have to write this :

php > echo preg_replace("/\\\\\\\\/", "\\", "I\\\\'ve had");
I\'ve had

Because to write a \\ in a php string, you have to write \\\\ , but you have to escape both for regexp's interpreter, and it becomes \\\\\\\\ . That's a single \\ , so you have to repeat it twice.