PHP: Wildcard String Match Checker - Laravel 4

str-helper.php

<?php

/**
 * Ported from Laravel 4 for external usage.
 */
function is($pattern, $value) {
    if ($pattern == $value) return true;

    $pattern = preg_quote($pattern, '#');

    // Asterisks are translated into zero-or-more regular expression wildcards
    // to make it convenient to check if the strings starts with the given
    // pattern such as "library/*", making any string check convenient.
    $pattern = str_replace('\*', '.*', $pattern).'\z';

    return (bool) preg_match('#^'.$pattern.'#', $value);
}