HI

I want to extract text between two points of a string

the string is held in variable $extracted and the text u i wish to get hold of is between the below anchor points

<!-- start -->

<!-- end -->

How do i do this?

cheers

PHP Code:

<?php

$extracted = "before<!-- start -->between<!-- end -->after";

preg_match("#<!-- start -->(.*?)<!-- end -->#",$extracted,$matches);

print $matches[1];

?>

Ought to do it.

EDIT, d'oh, it should be $matches[1]....

Hi There,
Your script is not actually separating the section i require. as you can see on the link below, the whole page is extracted and not the code between the anchor points start and end which basiclaly is the left hand column of the page.

http://www.pnets.org/php/HTMLEmail.php
any more ideas?

<?
  // get the data from site
  if ($handle = fopen("http://www.pnets.org/php/HTMLEmail.php", "r")) {
    $contents = '';
    while (!feof($handle)) {
      $contents .= fread($handle, 8192);
    }
    fclose($handle);
  }
  else $contents = "";
 
  // here's the code
  if (preg_match_all("/<!-- start -->(.*?)<!-- end -->/is",$contents,$matches)) {
    $regCount = -1;
    while (isset($matches[1][++$regCount])) echo $matches[1][$regCount] ."\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n";
  }
?>

hi Vibe,
This is great, but I want to grab that string and write it somewhere else. (another file)

How can i use this script to reflect this.

Sorry. well new to this php.


Basically. The html that this script extracts, i wish to write to another html page.

cheers

<?
  $html_code_to_write = "";
 
  // here's the code
  if (preg_match_all("/<!-- start -->(.*?)<!-- end -->/is",$contents,$matches)) {
    $regCount = -1;
    while (isset($matches[1][++$regCount]))
      $html_code_to_write .= $matches[1][$regCount] ."\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n";
  }
 
  if ($fp = fopen("/path/to/my/file.txt", "w")) {
?>

if I understand you correctly...

<?
  $html_code_to_write = "";
 
  // here's the code
  if (preg_match_all("/<!-- start -->(.*?)<!-- end -->/is",$contents,$matches)) {
    $regCount = -1;
    while (isset($matches[1][++$regCount]))
      $html_code_to_write .= $matches[1][$regCount] ."\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n";
  }
 
  if ($fp = fopen("/path/to/my/file.txt", "w")) {
    fputs($fp, $html_code_to_write, strlen($html_code_to_write));
    fclose($fp);
  }
?>

bah, I think I hit tab or something and with the keypress, it submitted the first bit..

sowwy

Woops, the first match ($matches[0]) is the whole match, not the first group...

Originally Posted by 0beron

Woops, the first match ($matches[0]) is the whole match, not the first group...

true, but it also needed the /s modifier so the '.' char included newlines in the regexp