Date: 2012oct2 Update: 2026aug18 Language: perl, php, Java Q. regex: How to protect a string that is going to be used in a regular expression? A. In perl:

$ok_for_pattern = quotemeta($s);

# Now you can use it in a pattern without fear of it having meta characters, eg: $pat = '^' . $ok_for_pattern . '$';

In PHP:

$ok_for_pattern = quotemeta($s);

In Java:

String ok_for_pattern = Pattern.quote(s);