title: how do i compare php string vars using regex
body: <p>I would like to match (with regex) two strings ignoring the fact that one string may or may not have hyphens and/or single-quote chars (in fact just ignore all punctuation in both strings).</p>
  
  <p>The problem is both strings are within PHP variables, not literals which i can do easily however, but not with variables - any ideas please ... is this even possible.</p>
  
  <p>For example like a pattern modifier /i which specifies case-insensitive comparisons - is there a modifier to say ignore punctuation just compare alpha-numeric strings ??</p>