Regular Expression with php Error

Question

i have the following html structure :

<div data-provincia="mi" data-nazione="it" ecc...

I'm trying to take "mi" with preg_match function. This is my code :

$pattern = '/data-provincia=*"[a-zA-Z]*"/';
preg_match($pattern,$element,$provincia);

I think that the code is right but it doesn't match with anything. Where i'm wrong? Thanks.

works ok for me [fiddle](http://phpfiddle.org/main/code/gpkz-e1vf) — DevDonkey, Nov 24 '15 at 09:17
Simple: don't. Try a [parser](http://php.net/manual/en/book.simplexml.php) instead. — Jan, Nov 24 '15 at 09:17

Calimero · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-24T09:21:58.670

1

You might want to use the quantifier + (1 or more) next to the character class between brackets, and remove the first star. Also added a subtpattern for you to get exactly the part you want. Give it a try :

$pattern = '/data-provincia="([a-zA-Z]+)"/';
preg_match($pattern,$element,$provincia);
echo $provincia[1];

edited Nov 24 '15 at 09:21

answered Nov 24 '15 at 09:17

Calimero

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It also return me a empty array. – Isky Nov 24 '15 at 09:20
I updated my answer (move the + inside the subpattern), please try again. – Calimero Nov 24 '15 at 09:22
Still don't work. The regex is right (also mine works okay) but it return me and empty array. – Isky Nov 24 '15 at 09:23
Sorry, it works, Thank you. – Isky Nov 24 '15 at 09:35
yw, please consider accepting the answer. – Calimero Nov 24 '15 at 10:48

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 24 '15 at 09:23

1

$element = '<div data-provincia="mi" data-nazione="it" ecc...>';
$pattern = '/<div[^>]*data-provincia=\"([^\"]+)\"[^>]*>/';
preg_match($pattern,$element,$provincia);
print_r($provincia[1]);

answered Nov 24 '15 at 09:23

Mayur Koshti

1,794
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Show your full code. – Mayur Koshti Nov 24 '15 at 09:27

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 24 '15 at 09:24

In addition to my comment, for this simple attribute you can use the following regex:

$regex = '/data-provincia="([^"]*)/i';
preg_match($regex,$element,$matches);
echo $matches[1];

Basically match everything except a double quote as many times as possible (or none). But please at least consider using a Parser for this task, regular expressions were not meant to deal with it.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 24 '15 at 09:25

Its working fine for me

$element = '<div data-provincia="mi" data-nazione="it"></div>';
$pattern = '/data-provincia=*"[a-zA-Z]*"/';
$matches= array();
preg_match($pattern,$element, $matches);
if (!empty($matches)) {
    foreach ($matches as $eachOne) {
        //code to remove unwanted
        $text = trim(preg_replace('/^data-provincia\=/', '', $eachOne), '""');
        echo " $eachOne; $text";
    }

}

Regular Expression with php Error

4 Answers4