Description:
------------
Scenario:

An input or subject string is expected to be of the form /^(SOME_REGEX)+$/
If it matches then the substrings will be extracted using preg_match_all()

Example:  

$subject = '993A27C5502A3B';
and is expected to match $pattern = '/^(\d+[A-C])+$/ ';
(obviously here it does)

If it matches $pattern then the matches are extracted:
preg_match_all("/(\d+[A-C])/", $subject, $matches);

The weakness is that there isn't a way to stipulate or test whether preg_match_all() has consumed the entire subject string. So we have to first test with one preg_match() whether or not $subject matches a repetition of $pattern, then a second preg_match_all() to extract the matches (i.e. break down $subject) if it does.

This must be a very common scenario for preg_match_all, as a person matching all substrings may want to confirm whether the whole string is used.


REQUEST:

Can there be a flag added such as PREG_CONSUME_ALL that requires preg_match_all() to have consumed the entire string, and if it did not, returns FALSE, so that this double regex use isn't needed? Also perhaps a PREG_CONSUMED_ALL flag that causes the return value to indicate TRUE or FALSE depending whether or not the subject was fully consumed. I think this would be useful.

NOTES -
  1) By "consumed" I mean that the matches, imploded, make up the original string, ie natural meaning.
  2) Perhaps the same or similar enhancement might benefit preg_split() as well, and any other preg_*() functions that attempt to "walk" the subject and repeatedly act as often as possible upon it.