Get the value of a html input element as a php string

Question

I have a html file loaded as a string in php, and I need to get the values of the input elements in the HTML string. Can someone help me build a function which takes the name of the input element and returns its value?

This is an example of the function I would like to do:

function getVal($name){

    $htmlStr = "<form action = \"action.php\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"command\" value=\"123456\">
                <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"quantity\" value=\"1\">
                <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"user_mode\" value=\"1\">
                <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"stock\" value=\"-1255303070\">
                <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"id\" value="429762082">
                <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"pidm\" value=\"2\"></form>";

            // I'd like to get the value of $name here probably using preg_match     

            return $value; //returns 123456

        }

$val = getVal("command"); //val should be 123456.

any idas? Thank you

This would be easier if you just posted the form to your script. — Patrick James McDougle
– Patrick James McDougle, Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 19:00
Use DOMDocument to parse the HTML string and DOMXPath to query for the value you want. There are zillions of examples here in SO (both for HTML and XML, it's the same most of the time). — Jon
– Jon, Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 19:00
instead, use ajax to run a php file in javascript and pass the value of the input field you want. — user1534664
– user1534664, Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 19:00
What exactly are you trying to do? Like @PatrickJamesMcDougle said if you post the form to your page you can access the post variables and manipulate them anyway you want. — hanleyhansen
– hanleyhansen, Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 19:02

ioseb · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-27 19:03:08Z

8

Here is an example with DOM:

$html = "<form action = \"action.php\">
  <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"command\" value=\"123456\">
  <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"quantity\" value=\"1\">
  <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"user_mode\" value=\"1\">
  <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"stock\" value=\"-1255303070\">
  <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"id\" value=\"429762082\">
  <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"pidm\" value=\"2\">
</form>";

$document = new DOMDocument();
$document->loadHTML($html);

$inputs = $document->getElementsByTagName("input");

foreach ($inputs as $input) {
  if ($input->getAttribute("name") == "id") {
    $value = $input->getAttribute("value");
  }
}

echo $value;

answered Nov 27, 2012 at 19:03

ioseb

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Comments

netcoder · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-27 19:05:50Z

1

Load the HTML in a DOMDocument, then a simple XPath query would to the trick:

$xpath = new DOMXPath($domDocument);
$items = $xpath->query('//*[@name="command"]/@value');
if ($items->length)
    $value = $items->item(0)->value;

answered Nov 27, 2012 at 19:05

netcoder

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1 Comment

Jon Over a year ago

$value = $xpath->evaluate('string(...)') can be more convenient if you don't really care about the difference between "no such element" and "empty value".

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