Get specific ".." with PHP regex?

Question

I have a variable ($page) that contains HTML code as follows:

<html>
    <head>head</head>
    <body>
        <strong>12</strong>
        recommendations 
        <br />
        <strong>50</strong>
        connections
    </body>
</html>

Now I want to get the number of connections (in this case it's 50) with a regular expression in PHP, so I use this:

preg_match('#<strong>(.*)</strong>#', $page, $connections)

But this gets 12, not 50. How can I solve this problem?

Do you want both values or always the 2nd one? Always the last one? Always the one before "connections"? (Also, please see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags - there are better/easier ways to handle HTML.) — , Oct 22 '12 at 16:12

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 22 '12 at 16:12

4

preg_match('/<strong>([0-9]*)<\/strong>\s+connections/', $page, $connections);

echo $connections[1]; // 50

answered Oct 22 '12 at 16:12

CAMason

1,122
7
13

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+1 Because, if this must be an ugly regular expression - which I am opposed to, but that's another issue - it is best to make it specific to the problem. – Oct 22 '12 at 16:13

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 22 '12 at 16:09

2

With the caveat that Regular Expressions should not be used to parse HTML, take a look at preg_match_all(). If the HTML follows that structure, you are interested in the second match.

answered Oct 22 '12 at 16:09

Jason McCreary

71,546
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should be `preg_match_all` - damn SO not allowing one char edits – user428517 Oct 22 '12 at 16:10
@JasonMcCreary it works, but can I use #(.*)/\r\n/connections# ? in fact I want to add "connections" in Regex, how to do it? – stevey Oct 22 '12 at 16:17
Yes. Looks like **Craig Mason** has provided that answer. – Jason McCreary Oct 22 '12 at 16:18

Get specific ".." with PHP regex?

2 Answers2