Extract Text from within tags using RegExp PHP

Question

I am trying to extract some strings from the source code of a web page which looks like this :

<p class="someclass">
String1<br />
String2<br />
String3<br />
</p>

I'm pretty sure those strings are the only things that end with a single line break(
). Everything else ends with two or more line breaks. I tried using this :

preg_match_all('~(.*?)<br />{1}~', $source, $matches);

But it doesn't work like it's supposed to. It returns some other text too along with those strings.

@Jack : Nope. It's a complete mess. I only want the strings. It returns a whole lot more. — Mayank Kumar
– Mayank Kumar, Commented Jun 18, 2013 at 13:37
Don't use regular expressions to parse HTML. You cannot reliably parse HTML with regular expressions, and you will face sorrow and frustration down the road. As soon as the HTML changes from your expectations, your code will be broken. See htmlparsing.com/php for examples of how to properly parse HTML with PHP modules that have already been written, tested and debugged. — Andy Lester
– Andy Lester, Commented Jun 18, 2013 at 15:10

Ja͢ck · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-18 14:05:14Z

3

DOMDocument and XPath to the rescue.

$html = <<<EOM
<p class="someclass">
String1<br />
String2<br />
String3<br />
</p>
EOM;

$doc = new DOMDocument;
$doc->loadHTML($html);
$xp = new DOMXPath($doc);

foreach ($xp->query('//p[contains(concat(" ", @class, " "), " someclass ")]') as $node) {
    echo $node->textContent;
}

Demo

edited Jun 18, 2013 at 14:05

answered Jun 18, 2013 at 13:36

Ja͢ck

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Comments

Joe · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-18 13:58:21Z

2

I wouldn't recommend using a regular expression to get the values. Instead, use PHP's built in HTML parser like this:

$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadHTML($source);
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);

$elements = $xpath->query('//p[@class="someclass"]');
$text = array(); // to hold the strings
if (!is_null($elements)) {
    foreach ($elements as $element) {
        $text[] = strip_tags($element->nodeValue);
    }
}
print_r($text); // print out all the strings

This is tested and working. You can read more about the PHP's DOMDocument class here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.dom.php

Here's a demonstration: http://phpfiddle.org/lite/code/0nv-hd6 (click 'Run')

edited Jun 18, 2013 at 13:58

answered Jun 18, 2013 at 13:37

Joe

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Comments

Ja͢ck · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-18 13:52:42Z

-1

Try this:

preg_match_all('~^(.*?)<br />$~m', $source, $matches);

edited Jun 18, 2013 at 13:52

Ja͢ck

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answered Jun 18, 2013 at 13:25

tomsv

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1 Comment

Ja͢ck Over a year ago

Not sure why it's still down voted, it should work as expected within its limited scope.

artnikpro · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-18 14:36:12Z

-1

Should work. Please try it

preg_match_all("/([^<>]*?)<br\s*\/?>/", $source, $matches);

or if your strings may contain some HTML code, use this one:

preg_match_all("/(.*?)<br\s*\/?>\\n/", $source, $matches);

edited Jun 18, 2013 at 14:36

answered Jun 18, 2013 at 14:28

artnikpro

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