Can't use brackets in preg_replace

[rctxtreme]

  $find = array(
       "'<a href=\"(.*?)\" title=\"(.*?)\" tabindex=\"(.*?)\">diff</a>'i",
       "'<a href=\"(.*?)\" title=\"(.*?)\">hist</a>'i",
  );
  $replace = array(
       "<a href=\"\\1\" title=\"\\2\" tabindex=\"\\3\"><img src=\"http://wprcph.a2h.8m6.net/diff.gif\" alt=\"diff\" /></a>",
       "<a href=\"\\1\" title=\"\\2\"><img src=\"http://wprcph.a2h.8m6.net/hist.gif\" alt=\"hist\" /></a>",
  );

$out6=preg_replace($find,$replace,$out5);

See that code? It runs perfectly fine.

But it doesn't when I try to do this:

  $find = array(
       "'(<a href=\"(.*?)\" title=\"(.*?)\" tabindex=\"(.*?)\">diff</a>)'i",
       "'(<a href=\"(.*?)\" title=\"(.*?)\">hist</a>)'i",
  );
  $replace = array(
       "<a href=\"\\1\" title=\"\\2\" tabindex=\"\\3\"><img src=\"http://wprcph.a2h.8m6.net/diff.gif\" alt=\"diff\" /></a>",
       "<a href=\"\\1\" title=\"\\2\"><img src=\"http://wprcph.a2h.8m6.net/hist.gif\" alt=\"hist\" /></a>",
  );

$out6=preg_replace($find,$replace,$out5);

I wish to kill the brackets that surrond the diff and hist links, but as soon as I try the whole layout screws.

Any help?

[Twey]

Brackets are a special character in regex and must be escaped accordingly:

  $find = array(
       '/\(<a href="(.*?)" title="(.*?)" tabindex="(.*?)">diff</a>\)/i',
       '/\(<a href="(.*?)" title="(.*?)">hist</a>\)/i',
  );
  $replace = array(
       '<a href="$1" title="$2" tabindex="$3"><img src="http://wprcph.a2h.8m6.net/diff.gif" alt="diff"></a>',
       '<a href="$1" title="$2"><img src="http://wprcph.a2h.8m6.net/hist.gif" alt="hist"></a>',
  );

Don't overuse double quotes in PHP. They're slightly less efficient, and often considerably less readable, as seen here. Also, $n is now the preferred way of referencing a capture.