expression problem

[emmerink@gmail.com]

Hi,

$xml = "tekst <titletwee </title>\n drie </trvier </td>";

$a_sSubject = trim($xml);

$a_sStart = '<title>';$a_sE nd = '<\/tr>';
$pattern = '/'. $a_sStart .'(.*?)'. $a_sEnd .'/';
preg_match_all( $pattern, $a_sSubject, $result);

print_r($result );



results in:
Array
(
[0] =Array
(
)

[1] =Array
(
)

)

Any idea why there is no content in the result?
(expected to find the content in between <titleen </tr>)

Thanks for any help.

[naixn]

Re: expression problem

emmerink@gmail. com wrote :

Hi,
>
$xml = "tekst <titletwee </title>\n drie </trvier </td>";
>
$a_sSubject = trim($xml);
>
$a_sStart = '<title>';$a_sE nd = '<\/tr>';
$pattern = '/'. $a_sStart .'(.*?)'. $a_sEnd .'/';
preg_match_all( $pattern, $a_sSubject, $result);
>
print_r($result );
>
>
>
results in:
Array
(
[0] =Array
(
)
>
[1] =Array
(
)
>
)
>
Any idea why there is no content in the result?
(expected to find the content in between <titleen </tr>)
>
Thanks for any help.
>

Why use (.*?) ?
That means : search for any string with 0 or more characters. And the
'?' is here to say 'but this is not mandatory'.
That means : 0 ore more characters, or 0 characters.

Now:

<?php
$xml = "tekst <titletwee </title>\n drie </trvier </td>";

$a_sSubject = trim($xml);

$a_sStart = '<title>';
$a_SEnd = '</tr>';
$pattern = '!' . $a_sStart . '(.*)' . $a_sEnd . '!';
preg_match_all( $pattern, $a_sSubject, $result);

print_r($result );
?>


That worked for me (using '!' instead of '/' as regexp delimiter).
You may try to play 's' and/or 'm' regexp modifier to match the newline
character.

--
Naixn

http://fma-fr.net

[BKDotCom]

Re: expression problem

emmerink@gmail. com wrote:

$xml = "tekst <titletwee </title>\n drie </trvier </td>";
>
$a_sSubject = trim($xml);
>
$a_sStart = '<title>';$a_sE nd = '<\/tr>';
$pattern = '/'. $a_sStart .'(.*?)'. $a_sEnd .'/';
preg_match_all( $pattern, $a_sSubject, $result);
>
print_r($result );
>
Any idea why there is no content in the result?
(expected to find the content in between <titleen </tr>)

pay no attention to naixn. :) The ? character != "ignore" it means
"not greedy"
Your "problem" is that your search string contains a linebreak.
you need to add the "s" modifier to your expression so that the "."
matches the "\n"

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.modifiers.php

$pattern = '/'. $a_sStart .'(.*?)'. $a_sEnd .'/s'; // should be good

[emmerink@gmail.com]

Re: expression problem


BKDotCom schreef:

emmerink@gmail. com wrote:

$xml = "tekst <titletwee </title>\n drie </trvier </td>";

$a_sSubject = trim($xml);

$a_sStart = '<title>';$a_sE nd = '<\/tr>';
$pattern = '/'. $a_sStart .'(.*?)'. $a_sEnd .'/';
preg_match_all( $pattern, $a_sSubject, $result);

print_r($result );

Any idea why there is no content in the result?
(expected to find the content in between <titleen </tr>)

>
pay no attention to naixn. :) The ? character != "ignore" it means
"not greedy"
Your "problem" is that your search string contains a linebreak.
you need to add the "s" modifier to your expression so that the "."
matches the "\n"

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.modifiers.php

$pattern = '/'. $a_sStart .'(.*?)'. $a_sEnd .'/s'; // should be good

Thanks, that did it. Although naixn noticed the modifier, you were
much more to the point (which made it more useful in this quite
confusing regexp notations).

[naixn]

Re: expression problem

BKDotCom wrote :

emmerink@gmail. com wrote:

>$xml = "tekst <titletwee </title>\n drie </trvier </td>";
>>
>$a_sSubject = trim($xml);
>>
>$a_sStart = '<title>';$a_sE nd = '<\/tr>';
>$pattern = '/'. $a_sStart .'(.*?)'. $a_sEnd .'/';
>preg_match_all ($pattern, $a_sSubject, $result);
>>
>print_r($resul t);
>>
>Any idea why there is no content in the result?
>(expected to find the content in between <titleen </tr>)

>
pay no attention to naixn. :) The ? character != "ignore" it means
"not greedy"
Your "problem" is that your search string contains a linebreak.
you need to add the "s" modifier to your expression so that the "."
matches the "\n"

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.modifiers.php

$pattern = '/'. $a_sStart .'(.*?)'. $a_sEnd .'/s'; // should be good
>

I didn't say that ? == 'ignore', but 0 or 1 :p
But I didn't know it was able to manage greediness. I learnt some more regexp
today =D. Thanks ;)

--
Naixn

http://fma-fr.net

[Curtis]

Re: expression problem

You should preg_quote() the vars being inserted into the regex.
Although you know what's in them now, it would make it easier to change
them at a later time, without the need to statically escape.

[Dave Benjamin]

Re: expression problem

Curtis wrote:

You should preg_quote() the vars being inserted into the regex.
Although you know what's in them now, it would make it easier to change
them at a later time, without the need to statically escape.

Excellent advice.