Get second paragraph from a string function

Question

I have a string like this:

Maecenas laoreet est bibendum, dictum mi vel, cursus mi. Curabitur feugiat libero vitae lorem venenatis consequat. Donec luctus nisi cursus miet sapien blandit, quis congue massa tincidunt. Maecenas laoreet est bibendum, dictum mi vel, cursus mi. Curabitur feugiat libero vitae lorem venenatis consequat. Donec luctus nisi cursus miet sapien blandit, quis congue massa tincidunt.

 Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit.lor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis mollis, est non com.

I know how I can get the first paragraph like this:

function getFirstParagraph($string){
    $string = substr($string,0, strpos($string, "</p>")+4);
    return $string;
}

But I have no clue how I can get the second paragraph, can anybody help me with this?

maybe this will help you: http://simplehtmldom.sourceforge.net/ — violator667, Jan 12 '15 at 15:28
Use $offset parameter for `strpos` and find `` from offset which equals the end of first paragraph. — u_mulder, Jan 12 '15 at 15:28
You really need to use a DOM parser, like [PHPDomDocument](http://php.net/manual/en/class.domdocument.php) — Jay Blanchard, Jan 12 '15 at 15:29
@violator667 No need to use a third party library here, as there are two DOM manipulation APIs built into PHP already… — feeela, Jan 12 '15 at 15:30
Could you possibly explode the string using the end paragraph tag? — The Humble Rat, Jan 12 '15 at 15:31
@feeela so in that case you shouldnt use for example phpMailer - use mail() it is built in ;-) — violator667, Jan 12 '15 at 15:34
@violator667 Urgs, ehem – I see the pint. But the DOM APIs in PHP are pretty well since 5.3. — feeela, Jan 12 '15 at 17:25

rdiz · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-12T15:50:24.930

3

I would use regex.

function getParagraph($number, $string)
{
    $index = $number-1;

    $matches = [];

    if(!preg_match_all('#<p>(.*?)<\/p>#', $string, $matches))
        throw new Exception('No paragraphs found');

    $matches = $matches[1];
    if(!array_key_exists($index, $matches))
        throw new Exception("Only ".count($matches)." were found, you requested number {$number}");

    return $matches[$index];
}

function getFirstParagraph($string) //Legacy
{
    return getParagraph(1, $string);
}

edited Jan 12 '15 at 15:50

answered Jan 12 '15 at 15:32

rdiz

6,136
1
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That only works for the first paragraph. When I do getParagraph(2, $string); I get the error "Only 2 were found, you requested number 3". – nielsv Jan 12 '15 at 15:44
Try it again now, @Nielsv. – rdiz Jan 12 '15 at 15:50
Now getting the error: "Only 1 were found, you requested number 2" – nielsv Jan 12 '15 at 16:12
@Dencker You should not use regex in such a case. Your example will break when using `
` or `
` or `
` which are handled well if you use a DOM parser… See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454
– feeela Jan 12 '15 at 17:29
@feeela I agree, but in this case, it *can* be achieved with regex. You could expand it to `#(.*?)<\/p>#`and it won't break as long as you're just looking for paragraphs. – rdiz Jan 12 '15 at 17:45
@nielsv are you still using the same piece of text as you provided in the original post? – rdiz Jan 12 '15 at 17:45

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 12 '15 at 15:40

You could try

$string = "<p>Maecenas laoreet est bibendum, dictum mi vel, cursus mi. Curabitur feugiat libero vitae lorem venenatis consequat. Donec luctus nisi cursus miet sapien blandit, quis congue massa tincidunt. Maecenas laoreet est bibendum, dictum mi vel, cursus mi. Curabitur feugiat libero vitae lorem venenatis consequat. Donec luctus nisi cursus miet sapien blandit, quis congue massa tincidunt.</p><p><br />Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit.lor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis mollis, est non com.</p>";

    preg_match_all("/\<p\>(.*?)\<\/p\>/", $string, $arrParagraphs);
    $paragraphs=$arrParagraphs[0];

    echo $paragraphs[0]."<br />\n";
    echo $paragraphs[1]."<br />\n";

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 12 '15 at 15:34

Just use preg_match_all use the code below

<?php
 function getTextBetweenTags($string, $tagname)
 {
    $pattern = "/<$tagname>(.*?)<\/$tagname>/";
    preg_match_all($pattern, $string, $matches);
    return $matches[1];
 }
$array= getTextBetweenTags("

    <p>Maecenas laoreet est bibendum, dictum mi vel, cursus mi. Curabitur feugiat libero vitae lorem venenatis consequat. Donec luctus nisi cursus miet sapien blandit, quis congue massa tincidunt. Maecenas laoreet est bibendum, dictum mi vel, cursus mi. Curabitur feugiat libero vitae lorem venenatis consequat. Donec luctus nisi cursus miet sapien blandit, quis congue massa tincidunt.</p>

    <p><br />Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit.lor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis mollis, est non com.</p>
", "p"); 
echo $array[1];// will print 2nd para , for first para change $match[2] to $match [1]
?>

Hope this helps you

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 12 '15 at 15:35

Here is just a simple method:

$test ="<p>Maecenas laoreet est bibendum, dictum mi vel, cursus mi. Curabitur feugiat libero vitae lorem venenatis consequat. Donec luctus nisi cursus miet sapien blandit, quis congue massa tincidunt. Maecenas laoreet est bibendum, dictum mi vel, cursus mi. Curabitur feugiat libero vitae lorem venenatis consequat. Donec luctus nisi cursus miet sapien blandit, quis congue massa tincidunt.</p>

<p><br />Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit.lor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis mollis, est non com.</p>";

explode('</p>', $test);

print_r($test);

Get second paragraph from a string function

4 Answers4