regular expression for parsing html using preg_match_all

[crescent_au@yahoo.com]

Hi all,

I've been trying unsuccessfully to get the text from html page. Html
tag that I'm interested in looks like this:

<a class=link
href="http://www.something.c om/_something.php? type=cart">Shop ping
Cart</a>
<div><em class=newentry> <a href=http://nothing.com>New
Age</a></em></div>

>From the above tag, I want to extract "Shopping Cart". I'm not very

good with RE. I tried this:
$lines = file_get_conten ts("http://theabovetag.com/page.html");
preg_match_all( "/(<a\ class\=link\ href\=(.*)>)(<\/a>)/", $lines,
$matches1);

The above RE gives me "Shopping Cart" plus "New Age" as well. I just
want "Shopping Cart". What am I doing wrong? My RE is somehow ignoring
</atag right after Shopping Cart and instead accepting </aafter New
Age. Please help!

[Richard Levasseur]

Re: regular expression for parsing html using preg_match_all


crescent_au@yah oo.com wrote:

Hi all,
>
I've been trying unsuccessfully to get the text from html page. Html
tag that I'm interested in looks like this:
>
<a class=link
href="http://www.something.c om/_something.php? type=cart">Shop ping
Cart</a>
<div><em class=newentry> <a href=http://nothing.com>New
Age</a></em></div>
>

From the above tag, I want to extract "Shopping Cart". I'm not very

good with RE. I tried this:
$lines = file_get_conten ts("http://theabovetag.com/page.html");
preg_match_all( "/(<a\ class\=link\ href\=(.*)>)(<\/a>)/", $lines,
$matches1);
>
The above RE gives me "Shopping Cart" plus "New Age" as well. I just
want "Shopping Cart". What am I doing wrong? My RE is somehow ignoring
</atag right after Shopping Cart and instead accepting </aafter New
Age. Please help!

It most likely has to do with the greediness of *. Regular expressions
will match the *longest* possible string. To prevent this, use '?'.
given the string: "<a>text</a>more</a>"
<a>.*</amatches "<a>text</a>more</a>"
<a>.*?</amatches "<a>text</a>"

[crescent_au@yahoo.com]

Re: regular expression for parsing html using preg_match_all

It most likely has to do with the greediness of *. Regular expressions
will match the *longest* possible string. To prevent this, use '?'.
given the string: "<a>text</a>more</a>"
<a>.*</amatches "<a>text</a>more</a>"
<a>.*?</amatches "<a>text</a>"

Well what i basically want is:
<a class="somethin g" href=http://something.com/abc.php">Shoppi ng
Cart</a>

I want the RE to parse the HTML tag and see if it starts with '<a
class="somethin g" href=', then IGNORE whatever is between 'href=' and
'>', and ending with '</a>'. I couldn't figure out how to "ignore" the
text in between.

[Karel de Vos]

Re: regular expression for parsing html using preg_match_all

crescent_au@yah oo.com wrote:

>It most likely has to do with the greediness of *. Regular expressions
>will match the *longest* possible string. To prevent this, use '?'.
>given the string: "<a>text</a>more</a>"
><a>.*</amatches "<a>text</a>more</a>"
><a>.*?</amatches "<a>text</a>"

>
Well what i basically want is:
<a class="somethin g" href=http://something.com/abc.php">Shoppi ng
Cart</a>
>
I want the RE to parse the HTML tag and see if it starts with '<a
class="somethin g" href=', then IGNORE whatever is between 'href=' and
'>', and ending with '</a>'. I couldn't figure out how to "ignore" the
text in between.
>

Instead of a (greedy) * operator, use a negation class that parses
everything upto an certain character :
/(<a\ class\=link\ href\=([^>]*)>)([^<]*)(<\/a>)/