: Simplify URL rewrites in .htaccess? RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9_-]+)$ /userviewproducts.php?category= [L] RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9_-]+)/$ /userviewproducts.php?category= [L] RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9_-]+/[A-Za-z0-9_-]+)$

@Ann8826881

This could be further simplified to:

RewriteRule ^([w-]+(/[w-]+)?)/?$ /userviewproducts.php?category= [L]
RewriteRule ^([w-]+/[w-]+/[w-]+)/?$ /viewbuyproduct.php?1= [L]


w is shorthand for [A-Za-z0-9_].

The - (hyphen) does not need to be escaped when used at the start or end of the character class.

The ? at the end makes the preceding slash optional.

Finally, the first two rules (substitutions) are combined by making the second part of the pattern optional. ie. (/[w-]+)?. still matches the whole URL-path, less the trailing slash (if any).

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@Lee4591628

Try this:

RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9_-]+)/?$ /userviewproducts.php?category= [L]
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9_-]+/[A-Za-z0-9_-]+)/?$ /userviewproducts.php?category= [L]
RewriteRule ^([A-Za-z0-9_-]+/[A-Za-z0-9_-]+/[A-Za-z0-9_-]+)/?$ /viewbuyproduct.php?1= [L]


It's shorter.

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@Becky754

Read up on Regular Expressions. A better understanding of them will help you write shorter rules here and in future.

You can use a regular expression tool to experiment with different rules and see how they match.

I am sure you can get it down to two lines - one for each outcome that you want. The lines might be longer though :-)

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