preg_match_all help wanter

[PaulB]

Hello, as a newbie I'm requesting some help in understanding the regular
expression below

preg_match_all("|<tr(.*)</tr>|U",$table,$rows);

Would anybody please just run through ("|<tr(.*)</tr>|U" from left to right
and tell me what it means?

Thanks
Paul Bird

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[John Dunlop]

PaulB:

preg_match_all("|<tr(.*)</tr>|U",$table,$rows);

| are delimiters.
<tr are literal characters.
..* matches zero or more of any character except new lines
() makes a capturing subpattern
</trare literal characters
U inverts the Greediness of the whole pattern, meaning in this case
that .* stops the minute it reaches the first </tror newline instead
of matching everything until the last </tror newline.

This looks like an attempt to capture rows from an HTML table.

--
Jock

[PaulB]

John Dunlop wrote:

PaulB:

>preg_match_all("|<tr(.*)</tr>|U",$table,$rows);

>are delimiters.

<tr are literal characters.
.* matches zero or more of any character except new lines
() makes a capturing subpattern
</trare literal characters
U inverts the Greediness of the whole pattern, meaning in this case
that .* stops the minute it reaches the first </tror newline instead
of matching everything until the last </tror newline.

This looks like an attempt to capture rows from an HTML table.

Thank you very much. Yes it is an attempt to capture rows from an HTML
table, I am screen scraping a website to an array, however despite a
websearch I could not find a single clear reference to the preg_match_all
parameters so I appreciate your reply.

Paul
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[Rik Wasmus]

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:50:38 +0100, PaulB <pb***@ntlworld.comwrote:

John Dunlop wrote:

>PaulB:

>>preg_match_all("|<tr(.*)</tr>|U",$table,$rows);

>>are delimiters.

<tr are literal characters.
.* matches zero or more of any character except new lines
() makes a capturing subpattern
</trare literal characters
U inverts the Greediness of the whole pattern, meaning in this case
that .* stops the minute it reaches the first </tror newline instead
of matching everything until the last </tror newline.

This looks like an attempt to capture rows from an HTML table.

Thank you very much. Yes it is an attempt to capture rows from an HTML
table, I am screen scraping a website to an array, however despite a
websearch I could not find a single clear reference to the preg_match_all
parameters so I appreciate your reply.

http://www.php.net/preg_match_all
http://nl2.php.net/manual/en/referen...ern.syntax.php
http://www.regular-expressions.info/

And using regular epressions on HTML is notthe best way to go. Sure, if
you know what you're doing, and the HTML is valid, it could work most of
the time. It's more a job for a parser though, those are much more robust
& reliable for this kind of thing.
--
Rik Wasmus

[PaulB]

Rik Wasmus wrote:

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:50:38 +0100, PaulB <pb***@ntlworld.comwrote:

<snip>

>
http://www.php.net/preg_match_all
http://nl2.php.net/manual/en/referen...ern.syntax.php
http://www.regular-expressions.info/

And using regular epressions on HTML is notthe best way to go. Sure,
if you know what you're doing, and the HTML is valid, it could work
most of the time. It's more a job for a parser though, those are much
more robust & reliable for this kind of thing.

I got started with http://www.bradino.com/php/screen-scraping/ which strikes
me a very clear and succint example, however understanding the regex is a
little harder.

Paul

[ifyou]

In article <64*************@mid.individual.net>, pb***@ntlworld.com
says...

Rik Wasmus wrote:

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:03:16 +0100, PaulB <pb***@ntlworld.comwrote:

Regular exspressions should never be used in any application anyone other
than the original author would ever see and only then if he never has to
look at it more than three days later....

[AnrDaemon]

Greetings, if***@thinkaboutit.it.
In reply to Your message dated Monday, March 24, 2008, 17:49:23,

Regular exspressions should never be used in any application anyone other
than the original author would ever see and only then if he never has to
look at it more than three days later....

ROFLOL! Thanks for the happy morning, dude!
--
Sincerely Yours, AnrDaemon <an*******@freemail.ru>