Duration / Time Elapsed Extraction Regex for PHP

What this pattern does

This page provides a comprehensive, battle-tested regular expression for matching duration / time elapsed extraction, ported and verified for PHP. A rigorously tested regex reduces debugging time and protects your application from edge-case failures. The snippet below is ready to drop into your PHP project — whether you're validating in a Laravel validator, a WordPress plugin, or a standalone PHP script.

Php Implementation

<?php
// Duration / Time Elapsed Extraction
// ReDoS-safe | RegexVault — Dev & Systems > Log Parsing

define('DURATION_TIME_ELAPSED_EXTRACTION_PATTERN', '/([0-9]+(?:\.[0-9]+)?)\s*(ns|us|ms|s|m|h|min|sec|milliseconds?|microseconds?|seconds?|minutes?|hours?)\b/');

function validate_duration_time_elapsed_extraction(string $input): bool {
    return (bool) preg_match(DURATION_TIME_ELAPSED_EXTRACTION_PATTERN, $input);
}

// Example
var_dump(validate_duration_time_elapsed_extraction("completed in 125ms")); // bool(true)

Test Cases

When to use this pattern

This pattern is drawn from the Dev & Systems > Log Parsing category and carries a ReDoS-safe certification. That matters for PHP developers because especially relevant in PHP where PCRE backtracking limits can trigger silent failures on malicious input. RegexVault audits patterns against known backtracking attack vectors, ensuring you have the necessary context before using this regex in a high-stakes production environment.

Common Pitfalls

Technical Notes

Groups: 1=numeric value, 2=unit. Covers nanoseconds to hours. The \b prevents partial unit matches. Parse to a canonical duration type after extraction for comparison and aggregation.