PHP Get all Urls from string

Question

So I'm trying to get all the urls from a string with a script that looks like this:

$file = file_get_contents('something.txt');

function getUrls($string) {
    preg_match_all('~href=("|\')(.*?)\1~', $string, $out);
    print_r($out);
}

getUrls($file);

The urls contained in this document may be imperfect - i.e. "/blah/blah.asp?2". The problem is that when I run this script, I get an array that looks something like this:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => href="#A"
            [1] => href="#B"
            [2] => href="#C"
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => "
            [1] => "
            [2] => "
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => #A
            [1] => #B
            [2] => #C

        )

)

Any idea what could be going on here? I have no idea why it is returning alphabetical lists with hash signs instead of the desired urls. How can I go about just returning the urls?

I've been through them, mostly they address situations involving perfect urls like http : //www.example.com not the shortened ones I'm looking for. I've tried numerous solutions - no dice. — Thomas
– Thomas, Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 21:43

Casimir et Hippolyte · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-28 00:01:21Z

8

The way of evil:

$file = file_get_contents('something.txt');    

function displayUrls($string) {
    $pattern = '~\bhref\s*+=\s*+["\']?+\K(?!#)[^\s"\'>]++~';
    preg_match_all($pattern, $string, $out);
    print_r($out[0]);
}

displayUrls($file);

The good way:

$doc = new DOMDocument();
@$doc->loadHTMLFile('something.txt');
$links = $doc->getElementsByTagName('a');
foreach($links as $link) {
    $href = $link->getAttribute('href');
    if ($href[0] != '#') $result[] = $href;
}
print_r($result);

answered Jun 28, 2013 at 0:01

Casimir et Hippolyte

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2 Comments

Ro Yo Mi Over a year ago

+1, I love answers like this... instead of preaching about how regex is bad for parsing text like html, this answer is like a Rosetta stone and helps teach a better way.

Thomas Over a year ago

Wow, yeah this is a fantastic answer. I wish I could vote it up twice.

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