PHP preg_match_all is not working when into function - php

Question

There's a set of code I've used for a while to find strings into a file. But when I put it into a function, I don't get results and I think that it's preg_match_all that is not working. I don't know how to get this fixed.
Here's my code (copy/pasted from a tutorial):
function getprice($keyword, $outputvar) {
$pattern = preg_quote($keyword, '/');
$pattern = "/^.*$pattern.*\$/m";
echo "pattern:" . $pattern;
if(preg_match_all($pattern, $contents, $matches)){
$str=implode("\n", $matches[0]);
$str = substr( $str, ( $pos = strpos( $str, ':' ) ) === false ? 0 : $pos + 1 );
$$outputvar = $str;
}
else {
$$outputvar = "99999";
}
}

Answer 1

Not sure what you're trying to do with $outputvar and $$outputvar, but don't use them. return something. Also, $contents needs to be passed in:
function getprice($keyword, $contents) {
$pattern = preg_quote($keyword, '/');
$pattern = "/^.*$pattern.*\$/m";
if(preg_match_all($pattern, $contents, $matches)){
$str = implode("\n", $matches[0]);
$str = substr( $str, ( $pos = strpos( $str, ':' ) ) === false ? 0 : $pos + 1 );
return $str;
}
else {
return "99999";
}
}
Then use:
$outputvar = getprice($some_keyword, $some_contents);
This only addresses the use of the function, not your regex or the data that is parsed, as you haven't posted any test cases.