Why does this regex only mach the last occurence of the pattern - php

Question

I'm trying to create a regex which will create html out of markup code.
When trying to replace a part of the [table] markup, it only replaces the last occurence.
I have the following regex (PHP):
/(\[table].*)\[\|](.*\[\/table])/s
Replace pattern:
$1</td><td>$2
And the following test string:
[table]<thead>
<th>head1</th><th>head2</th></thead>
[*]test1[|]test2
[*]test1[|]test2
[/table]
It should produce the following:
[table]<thead>
<th>head1</th><th>head2</th></thead>
[*]test1</td><td>test2
[*]test1</td><td>test2
[/table]
but it actualy procudes this:
[table]<thead>
<th>head1</th><th>head2</th></thead>
[*]test1[|]test2
[*]test1</td><td>test2
[/table]
The problem with that is, that [|] is used in other markup codes to but should not be replaced with </td><td>
To clarify:
I have a table "bb-code"
[table]
[**]header1[||]header2[||]header3[||]...[/**]
[*]child1.1[|]child1.2[|]child1.3[|]...
[*]child2.1[|]child2.2[|]child2.3[|]...
[*]child3.1[|]child3.2[|]child3.3[|]...
[*]...[|]...[|]...[|]...
[/table]
I want this to become this:
<table class="ui compact stripet yellow table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>header1</th>
<th>header2</th>
<th>header3</th>
<th>....</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>child1.1</td>
<td>child1.2</td>
<td>child1.3</td>
<td>...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>child2.1</td>
<td>child2.2</td>
<td>child2.3</td>
<td>...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>child3.1</td>
<td>child3.2</td>
<td>child3.3</td>
<td>...</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Answer 1

Okay, I had a few minutes to spare on my mobile phone before bedtime, so I ran with Wiktor's comment and whacked up a series of preg_ functions to try to convert your bbcode to html. I don't have any experience with bbcode, so I am purely addressing your sample input and not considering fringe cases. I think php has a bbcode parser library somewhere, but I don't know if your bbcode syntax is the standard.
Some break down of the patterns implemented.
First, isolate each whole [table]...[/table] string in the document. (Regex101 Demo) ~\[table]\R*([^[]*(?:\[(?!/?table])[^[]*)*)\R*\[/table]~ will match the strings and pass the fullmatch as $m[0] and the substring between the table tags as $m[1] to BBTableToHTML().
Next, BBTableToHTML() will make 3 separate passes over the $m[1] string. Each of those patterns will send their respective matched strings to the associated custom function and return the modified string.
Before sending the updated $m[1] from BBTableToHTML() back to the echo, your desired <table...> and </table> tags will bookend $m[1].
Demos of the preg_replace_callback_array() patterns:
~\[\*\*]([^[]*(?:\[(?!/?\*\*])[^[]*)*)\[/\*\*]~ https://regex101.com/r/thINHQ/2
~(?:\[\*].*\R*)+~ https://regex101.com/r/thINHQ/3
~\[\*](.*)~ https://regex101.com/r/thINHQ/4
Code: (Demo)
$bbcode = <<<BBCODE
[b]Check out this demo[/b]
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[table]
[**]header1[||]header2[||]header3[||]...[/**]
[*]child1.1[|]child1.2[|]child1.3[|]...
[*]child2.1[|]child2.2[|]child2.3[|]...
[*]child3.1[|]child3.2[|]child3.3[|]...
[*]...[|]...[|]...[|]...
[/table]
simple text
[table]
[**]a 1[||]and a 2[/**]
[*]A[|]B
[*]C[|]D
[/table]
[s]3, you're out[/s]
blah
BBCODE;
function BBTableToHTML($m) {
return "<table class=\"ui compact stripet yellow table\">\n" .
preg_replace_callback_array(
[
'~\[\*\*]([^[]*(?:\[(?!/?\*\*])[^[]*)*)\[/\*\*]~' => 'BBTHeadToHTML',
'~(?:\[\*].*\R*)+~' => 'BBTBodyToHTML',
'~\[\*](.*)~' => 'BBTBodyRowToHTML'
],
$m[1]
) .
"</table>";
}
function BBTHeadToHTML($m) {
return "\t<thead>\n" .
"\t\t<tr>\n\t\t\t<th>" . str_replace('[||]', "</th>\n\t\t\t<th>", $m[1]) . "</th>\n\t\t</tr>\n" .
"\t</thead>";
}
function BBTBodyToHTML($m) {
return "\t<tbody>\n{$m[0]}\t</tbody>\n";
}
function BBTBodyRowToHTML($m) {
return "\t\t<tr>\n\t\t\t<td>" . str_replace('[|]', "</td>\n\t\t\t<td>", $m[1]) . "</td>\n\t\t</tr>";
}
echo preg_replace_callback(
'~\[table]\R*([^[]*(?:\[(?!/?table])[^[]*)*)\R*\[/table]~',
'BBTableToHTML',
$bbcode
);
Output:
[b]Check out this demo[/b]
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
<table class="ui compact stripet yellow table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>header1</th>
<th>header2</th>
<th>header3</th>
<th>...</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>child1.1</td>
<td>child1.2</td>
<td>child1.3</td>
<td>...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>child2.1</td>
<td>child2.2</td>
<td>child2.3</td>
<td>...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>child3.1</td>
<td>child3.2</td>
<td>child3.3</td>
<td>...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>...</td>
<td>...</td>
<td>...</td>
<td>...</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
simple text
<table class="ui compact stripet yellow table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>a 1</th>
<th>and a 2</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>A</td>
<td>B</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>C</td>
<td>D</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
[s]3, you're out[/s]
blah