Having trouble with preg_match_all

Question

Here is my code:

preg_match_all('/<a href="(.+?)index.php(.+?)&abc=(.+?)"/', $dataToParse, $matches);

foreach ($matches as $val)
{
    $absUrl = $val[1] . 'index.php' . $val[2] . '&abc=' . $val[3];

    echo $absUrl;
}

However, $val[1] is the entire matched string, including the <a href. I believe I have the syntax wrong but I have been trying to fix it with no luck. Not sure how to do this properly.

Doing it properly would involve a DOM parser instead of using regex to parse HTML. — Charles Sprayberry, Feb 18 '13 at 21:25
@JackManey: Inherited a project with other people who are doing it this way. — John Smith, Feb 18 '13 at 21:28
**Don't use regular expressions to parse HTML**. You cannot reliably parse HTML with regular expressions. As soon as the HTML changes from your expectations, your code will be broken. See http://htmlparsing.com/php.html for examples of how to properly parse HTML with PHP modules. — Andy Lester, Feb 18 '13 at 21:34
@JohnSmith - Then show them why parsing HTML with regexes is a terrible idea. — , Feb 19 '13 at 02:46

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 18 '13 at 21:26

4

Try passing the constant PREG_SET_ORDER after the $matches one, like so:

preg_match_all("/.../",$dataToParse,$matches,PREG_SET_ORDER);

For more information as to why, see the documentation

answered Feb 18 '13 at 21:26

Niet the Dark Absol

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 18 '13 at 21:33

0

$matches[0] is the whole string, $matches[1] is the first match group, $matches[2] the second match group and so on.

for( $i = 0; $i < count( $matches[1]); $i++)
{
    $absUrl = $matches[1][$i] . 'index.php' . $matches[2][$i] . '&abc=' . $matches[3][$i];
    echo $absUrl;
}

edited Feb 18 '13 at 21:33

nickb

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answered Feb 18 '13 at 21:32

circusdei

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there be ghosts in mah answers. – circusdei Feb 18 '13 at 21:34

Having trouble with preg_match_all

2 Answers2