Q: Extract only text lines visible in webbrowser?

**Allodoxaphobia** · Jul 17 '05, 10:05 AM

Re: Q: Extract only text lines visible in webbrowser?

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 09:24:43 -0500, Flemse hath writ:[color=blue]
> I need to web query for further processing, f.ex
>
> http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor...MBOL=F,MSFT,DE
>
> I use
>
><?php
> $MSN="http://moneycentral.ms n.com/investor/external/excel/quotes.asp?SYMB OL=";
> $QSymbols="F,MS FT,DE";
> $QStr="$MSN"."$ QSymbols";
> $lines = file ($QStr);
> ?>
>
> However, the relevant information is only 3 lines on the webpage, but
> more than 1000 lines in $lines, so it is slow and tedious to work
> with. Is there any way to extract only the lines visible in the
> browser?
>
> Flemse[/color]

You need something like:

$ lynx --dump --nolist --width=255 \

MSN

http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/external/excel/quotes.asp?SYMBOL=F,MSFT,DE

But, there's way more than your "...only 3 lines on the webpage".

Poke around with:

PHP: passthru - Manual

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.passthru.php

Execute an external program and display raw output

PHP: system - Manual

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.system.php

Execute an external program and display the output

PHP: exec - Manual

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.exec.php

Execute an external program