Regex issue with PHP and preg_match_all

Question

Hi everyone I am having and issue using Regex and can not get it to work when there are spaces or line breaks in the content.

$content = "<dt><span>Name:</span></dt>
                      <dd>
                        John
                      </dd>
                      <dt><span>Age:</span></dt>
                      <dd>
                        40
                      </dd>
                      <dt><span>Sex:</span></dt>
                      <dd>
                        Male
                      </dd>";

The regex i am using is

preg_match_all('/<dt><span>(.*)<\/span><\/dt><dd>(.*)<\/dd>/',$content, $output);

You should use a DOM parser for this, not regex.

Mike Brant
– Mike Brant

2013-03-20 18:34:24 +00:00
Commented Mar 20, 2013 at 18:34 — Mike Brant
– Mike Brant, Commented Mar 20, 2013 at 18:34
stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/…

webbiedave
– webbiedave

2013-03-20 18:36:47 +00:00
Commented Mar 20, 2013 at 18:36 — webbiedave
– webbiedave, Commented Mar 20, 2013 at 18:36
you can add [\h\v]* between tags in the pattern

user1646111
– user1646111

2013-03-20 18:37:40 +00:00
Commented Mar 20, 2013 at 18:37 — user1646111
– user1646111, Commented Mar 20, 2013 at 18:37

Ranty · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-20 18:41:18Z

2

Don't parse HTML with RegEx. Use DOM. Here's an example that will work if you are sure about HTML structure.

$dom = new DOMDocument();
@$dom->loadHTML($content);
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);
$spans = $xpath->query('//span');
$dds= $xpath->query('//dd');
for ($i = 0; $i < $spans->length; $i++)
{
    echo $spans->item($i)->nodeValue . $dds->item($i)->nodeValue . '<br>';
}

If you are not sure of it's structure, you'll need something a bit more complicated.

answered Mar 20, 2013 at 18:41

Ranty

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Comments

Captain Payalytic · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-20 18:38:13Z

0

Agree that you should use the DOM. however you are not taking account of the whitespace between and

Try:

preg_match_all('/<dt><span>(.*)<\/span><\/dt>.*<dd>(.*)<\/dd>/',$content, $output);

answered Mar 20, 2013 at 18:38

Captain Payalytic

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