PHP preg_replace - Regular expression not including a phrase

Question

$test = "<div><b><i>#uniquetag#</b></i></div> <div>Keep this</div>";

$test = preg_replace("/<div(.*)#uniquetag#(.*)<\/div>/i", "#uniquetag#", $test);

I want the result to be

$test = "#uniquetag# <div>Keep this</div>";

But it returns

$test = "#uniquetag#";

I think I know why. (.*) is greedy and it extend the search till the end. But I can't figure out what is the correct way to do it.

Update:

Special thanks to ghostdog74. Old problem solved. A new problem is experienced....

$test = "<div></div> <div><b><i>#uniquetag#</b></i></div> <div>Keep this</div>";

$test = preg_replace("/<div(.*)#uniquetag#(.*?)<\/div>/i", "#uniquetag#", $test);

Expected result is

$test = "<div></div> #uniquetag# <div>Keep this</div>";

But it turns out to be

$test = "#uniquetag# <div>Keep this</div>";

Again, I believe that's because of the first (.). Changing it to (.?) won't help also. Need to think of a way to exclude .

ghostdog74 · Accepted Answer · 2010-02-01 08:17:37Z

3

change (.*) to (.*?)

answered Feb 1, 2010 at 8:17

ghostdog74

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1 Comment

John Adawan Over a year ago

It works, but I face another problem. If there is a div tag before this code, it will gobble up all the divs before it.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:48:22Z

3

In the majority of cases I'd strongly recommend using an HTML parser (such as this one) to get these links. Using regular expressions to parse HTML is going to be problematic since HTML isn't regular and you'll have no end of edge cases to consider.

See here for more info.

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:48

CommunityBot

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answered Feb 1, 2010 at 8:16

Brian Agnew

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2 Comments

poke Over a year ago

HTML parsers are not always the best way when working with HTML code. If the code he is working on is always formatted exactly like this (for example because he generates it somewhere before), then RegExp is a fine and quick way for simple changes.

Brian Agnew Over a year ago

I think that's a fair comment, and pragmatism is a great guiding principle. I've amended to reflect that proviso.

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