Regex scraper challenge

Question

I am building a php data miner (scraper) I have this html line:

<label class='area'>
  <font class='bg_info' onmouseover="land_convert_txt(this,3067)" onmouseout='tooltip_hide()'>
   3,067 Sq. Ft.
  </font>

how to setup my regex to extract the area value only?

this is my function:

function extract_regex($subject, $regex, $index = 1)
{
    preg_match_all($regex, $subject, $matches);
    if (count($matches[$index]))
    {
        if (count($matches[$index]) == 1)
        {
            return trim($matches[$index][0]);
        }
        return $matches[$index];        
    }
    return '';
}

(this,3067) keep changing!

Thank you in advanced

[*Please* don't parse HTML with regexes.](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454) — michaelb958--GoFundMonica, Jun 30 '13 at 12:09
Regex to parse HTML with inline Javascript AND `` tags... Ah, the good ol' days. :P — Herbert, Jun 30 '13 at 13:25

funerr · Answer 1 · 2013-08-13T18:56:23.063

1

Don't use Regex to handle HTML!
Don't try to re-invent the wheel, you will probably create a square.

Try using some PHP web scrappers, like:

http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/html-parsing-and-screen-scraping-with-the-simple-html-dom-library/

Use code like so:

# create and load the HTML
include('simple_html_dom.php');
$html = new simple_html_dom();
$html->load($myHTML);

# get an element representing the area element
//$element =  $html->find('label[class=area]'); 
$element = $html->find(".area")

# Echo it out
echo $element[1]->innertext

edited Aug 13 '13 at 18:56

answered Jun 30 '13 at 11:18

funerr

7,212
14
81
129

thank you very much, but i build all my lib using regex and it will cost lost of time to fix it, the area part is only what i need in reg ex – Hassan Kazem Jun 30 '13 at 11:23
2

The time you'll save on maintenance is worth the time you put in to do it right in the first place. – Herbert Jun 30 '13 at 12:50

Ahmed Atta · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-30T12:47:35.463

0

 function extract_regex($subject, $regex, $index = 1)
    {
        preg_match_all($regex, $subject, $matches);
        if (count($matches[$index]))
        {
            if (count($matches[$index]) == 1)
            {
                return trim($matches[$index][0]);
            }
            return $matches[$index];        
        }
        return '';
    }

    $out = extract_regex("<label class='area'><font class='bg_info' onmouseover='land_convert_txt(this,3067)' onmouseout='tooltip_hide()'>3,067 Sq. Ft.</font></label>","/<label class=\'area\'>(.*)<\/label>/i");

        echo "<xmp>". $out . "</xmp>";

edited Jun 30 '13 at 12:47

answered Jun 30 '13 at 12:03

Ahmed Atta

363
1
7

thank you but i stated that the number keep changing i.e. 3067 – Hassan Kazem Jun 30 '13 at 12:11
what do you mean " that the number keep changing"? – Ahmed Atta Jun 30 '13 at 12:20
i mean from one page to another its changing , its variable – Hassan Kazem Jun 30 '13 at 12:21
Ok, That mean the result that you need from every page as : `xxxxxxxx ` – Ahmed Atta Jun 30 '13 at 12:26
xxxiwantthisxxxxx – Hassan Kazem Jun 30 '13 at 12:27
like this correct? $article['area'] = extract_regex($html, '/(.*)<\/label>/i'); – Hassan Kazem Jun 30 '13 at 12:28
sure that may be right – Ahmed Atta Jun 30 '13 at 12:30
but still not getting the text and area – Hassan Kazem Jun 30 '13 at 12:31
update changes, that work well with me – Ahmed Atta Jun 30 '13 at 12:38
atta, thanks but not working – Hassan Kazem Jun 30 '13 at 12:48
you can give me your parameters of extract_regex() as string not variables ? – Ahmed Atta Jun 30 '13 at 13:01

Regex scraper challenge

2 Answers2