ereg() returns the length of the matched string on success, 
the documentation is wrong. 

This bug has been fixed in the documentation's XML sources. 
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ereg() still only returns int(1) or (boolean)FALSE. I've expanded my test-script a bit:

<?php
$a = ereg("fo","fo"); // Simple test to see if documentation is right (it's not)
$b = ereg("bar","foobarbar"); // Is it the position of the first result, that is returned ? (no)
$c = ereg("foo","bar"); // A negative test (works)

echo $a . ":" . gettype($a). "\n";
echo $b . ":" . gettype($b). "\n";
echo $c . ":" . gettype($c). "\n";
?>

Result:
1:integer
1:integer
:boolean

According to the docs, it should be:
2:integer
3:integer
:boolean

If I understand, this function should return the legth of the match.
But it seems it has a bug, because it always return 1 if you don't pass the 3rd parameter. Or is it a feature that should be documented?

<?
echo ereg('foo', 'foo foo foo'); //1
echo ereg('foo', 'foo foo foo', $var); //3

echo ereg('foobar', 'foobar foo foo', $var2); //6
?>

Nuno

This bug has been fixed in CVS.

Snapshots of the sources are packaged every three hours; this change
will be in the next snapshot. You can grab the snapshot at
http://snaps.php.net/.
 
Thank you for the report, and for helping us make PHP better.

"If the optional parameter regs was not passed or the length of the matched string is 0, this functions returns 1."