What is the best way to parse a huge string in PHP and use RegEx to extract data

Question

I have a .tex file that I need to parse in order to extract some useful data from it. My idea was to load the .tex file in a string and then work with the string.

The problem is that it is a big file and applying regex on that can be problematic.

What do you thik is the best solution for that? Converting this .tex file in html? Or another format that is easier to deal with?

Thank you.

If the file contains normalized data and the records are separated by line breaks, read every line and apply your regex on that. — TiMESPLiNTER
– TiMESPLiNTER, Commented Dec 3, 2013 at 8:17
@Philipp, no, the file has about 300 lines on it, it is quiet small in size, but a lot for a string. — Milos Cuculovic
– Milos Cuculovic, Commented Dec 3, 2013 at 8:22
@TiMESPLiNTER, the file is normalized by TEX and the data are separated with one or multiple line breaks. — Milos Cuculovic
– Milos Cuculovic, Commented Dec 3, 2013 at 8:23
That isn't big - you could use your regex directly on that 300 lines. — Philipp
– Philipp, Commented Dec 3, 2013 at 8:24

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 20:33:26Z

2

There is PHP function called fgets https://www.php.net/fgets which you can read the file line by line.

I hope it might be useful.

edited Nov 17, 2023 at 20:33

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answered Dec 3, 2013 at 8:18

vahnevileyes

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3 Comments

Milos Cuculovic Over a year ago

+1 for you, this solution seams interesting. Now, I will have to apply multiple regex on the file because at the end I need to parse all. Should I make a switch - case solution and find which data I found?

vahnevileyes Over a year ago

If you want to normalize the data you can create an array of strings and while reading line by line, search on the array if the line is equal to it.

Milos Cuculovic Over a year ago

How do you mean that vahnevileyes?

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