Remove specific XML tag from string via PHP

Question

I need to remove only the specific tag </licenses> from an XML file saved to a variable.

I've tried this, but I'm not getting the expected output:

<?php

  print preg_replace("</licenses>", "", "</licenses>");

?>

Returns:

<>

And surprisingly, the following removes the contents of all tags:

<?php

  print preg_replace("<>", "", "</licenses>");

?>

All I can think is that I'm somehow hitting a regex pattern or something. How can I do this?

It is because < and > are used as the delimiters. Only what is inside them, "/licenses", will be replaced. — Sverri M. Olsen
– Sverri M. Olsen, Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 12:32

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-17 12:30:05Z

3

You need to use regex delimiter in the first argument of preg_replace which is a regex:

 echo preg_replace("#</licenses>#", "", "</licenses>");

This will return an empty string as expected.

answered Dec 17, 2013 at 12:30

anubhava

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Comments

harry · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-17 12:31:52Z

2

You can use it.

print preg_replace("/<\/licenses>/", "", "</licenses>");

answered Dec 17, 2013 at 12:31

harry

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< and > are not special characters and do not need to be escaped.