Grab Text Between Tags

[mgriggs13]

I have researched the jist behind making this work but I am having a unique problem that I can't seem to fix.

I use the following code to grab the text between these two tags.

$content = "[tag]Hello[/tag]";
preg_match_all("/(\[([\w]+)\])(.*)(\[\/\\2\])/", $content, $matches);
print_r($matches);
 
 

This yields the following results succesfully:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => [tag]Hello[/tag]
        )
    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => [tag]
        )
    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => tag
        )
    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => Hello
        )
    [4] => Array
        (
            [0] => [/tag]
        )
)
 

The problem arises when there are duplicate tags.

$content = "[tag]Hello[/tag] More Text [tag]Hello2[/tag]";
preg_match_all("/(\[([\w]+)\])(.*)(\[\/\\2\])/", $content, $matches);
print_r($matches);
 
 

With this I end up with the following:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => [tag]Hello[/tag] More Text [tag]Hello2[/tag]
        )
    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => [tag]
        )
    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => tag
        )
    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => Hello[/tag] More Text [tag]Hello2
        )
    [4] => Array
        (
            [0] => [/tag]
        )
)
 
 

I need to be able to have it stop at the first close tag and then register the second open and close tag in a different array. Any Ideas?

[bucabay]

I have researched the jist behind making this work but I am having a unique problem that I can't seem to fix.

I use the following code to grab the text between these two tags.

$content = "[tag]Hello[/tag]";
preg_match_all("/(\[([\w]+)\])(.*)(\[\/\\2\])/", $content, $matches);
print_r($matches);
 
 

This yields the following results succesfully:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => [tag]Hello[/tag]
        )
    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => [tag]
        )
    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => tag
        )
    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => Hello
        )
    [4] => Array
        (
            [0] => [/tag]
        )
)
 

The problem arises when there are duplicate tags.

$content = "[tag]Hello[/tag] More Text [tag]Hello2[/tag]";
preg_match_all("/(\[([\w]+)\])(.*)(\[\/\\2\])/", $content, $matches);
print_r($matches);
 
 

With this I end up with the following:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => [tag]Hello[/tag] More Text [tag]Hello2[/tag]
        )
    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => [tag]
        )
    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => tag
        )
    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => Hello[/tag] More Text [tag]Hello2
        )
    [4] => Array
        (
            [0] => [/tag]
        )
)
 
 

I need to be able to have it stop at the first close tag and then register the second open and close tag in a different array. Any Ideas?

What is happening is that PHP is matching as many characters as it can for the quantifier .* in your regular expression.

To make the quantifiers match the least amount of characters use the "un-greedy" indicator, "?".

eg:

[PHP]preg_match_all("/(\[([\w]+)\])(.*?)(\[\/\\2\])/", $content, $matches);[/PHP]

notice you now have (.*?) matching the characters in between tags rather than the previous (.*)

(.*?) will match until it reaches the first (\[\/\\2\])

before you had:

(.*) will match until it reaches the last (\[\/\\2\])

[mgriggs13]

What is happening is that PHP is matching as many characters as it can for the quantifier .* in your regular expression.

To make the quantifiers match the least amount of characters use the "un-greedy" indicator, "?".

eg:

[PHP]preg_match_all("/(\[([\w]+)\])(.*?)(\[\/\\2\])/", $content, $matches);[/PHP]

notice you now have (.*?) matching the characters in between tags rather than the previous (.*)

(.*?) will match until it reaches the first (\[\/\\2\])

before you had:

(.*) will match until it reaches the last (\[\/\\2\])

Rock on! Thanks a lot. I thought I had tried that but I guess working at 4 am with 0 sleep can screw with your head. Thanks again.