preg_match_all doesn't return a result

Question

I want to parse the string to a dataset through regex matching in PHP. Here is my code:

$string = "?\t\t\t\t\t\t?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><documents><Resp><gatewayId>g10060<\/gatewayId><accountId>310198232<\/accountId><orderNo>0970980541000510490500480<\/orderNo><tId><\/tId><tAmt>20<\/tAmt><result>1<\/result><respCode>21<\/respCode><signMD5>7ecd1eb9b870aaba3bfa45892095194e<\/signMD5><\/Resp><\/documents>";
preg_match_all('/<(.*?)>(.*?)<\\/(.*?)>/', $string, $arr);
echo json_encode($arr);

However it only returns me [[],[],[],[]], as empty arrays. I've tried the regex expression on https://regex101.com/, and it shows me the correct result, but it is not working on my server.

What I want is:

[ "gatewayId" => "g10060",
  "accountId" => "310198232",
  "orderNo" => "0970980541000510490500480",
  "tId" => "",
  "tAmt" => "20",
  "result" => "1",
  "respCode" => "21",
  "signMD5" => "7ecd1eb9b870aaba3bfa45892095194e" ]

How can I fix this?

dont use regular expressions: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3577641/how-do-you-parse-and-process-html-xml-in-php — , Feb 20 '17 at 02:35
they give me a strange format similar to xml, but I cannot simply use xml parser — Jacky Lau, Feb 20 '17 at 02:36
`.. <\/accountId>..` - is that actual backslash character in the string? afaik, slash doesn't requires to be escaped... — Wizard, Feb 20 '17 at 02:50
someone has solved my problem, sorry for my stupid question, thx a lot guy~ — Jacky Lau, Feb 20 '17 at 02:56
thought it was obvious that you needed to clean the escaping first. an XML parser is still a better idea than using regular expressions — , Feb 20 '17 at 03:49

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 20 '17 at 17:07

Use:

<?php

$string = "?\t\t\t\t\t\t?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><documents><Resp><gatewayId>g10060<\/gatewayId><accountId>310198232<\/accountId><orderNo>0970980541000510490500480<\/orderNo><tId><\/tId><tAmt>20<\/tAmt><result>1<\/result><respCode>21<\/respCode><signMD5>7ecd1eb9b870aaba3bfa45892095194e<\/signMD5><\/Resp><\/documents>";
preg_match_all('#<([^\?>]+)>([^<]+)<\\\/[^>]+>#', $string, $arr);

list($_, $tags, $values)= $arr;

// As @billynoah said it's much less code
$result = array_combine($tags, $values);

/*
 * Old inefficient code commented
 *
$result = array_reduce(array_keys($tags), function($carry, $key) use ($tags, $values){
    $k = $tags[$key];
    $v = $values[$key];
    $carry[$k] = $v;
    return $carry;
},[]);
*/

var_dump($result);

Result:

array(7) {
  ["gatewayId"] => string(6) "g10060"
  ["accountId"] => string(9) "310198232"
  ["orderNo"]   => string(25) "0970980541000510490500480"
  ["tAmt"]      => string(2) "20"
  ["result"]    => string(1) "1"
  ["respCode"]  => string(2) "21"
  ["signMD5"]   => string(32) "7ecd1eb9b870aaba3bfa45892095194e"
}

you're right - i was only focused on fixing the slash issue - this is better. — But those new buttons though.., Feb 20 '17 at 03:14
might I suggest replacing that whole `array_reduce()` bit with simply: `$result = array_combine($tags,$values);` — But those new buttons though.., Feb 20 '17 at 03:21

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 20 '17 at 17:11

3

You need to double escape the backslash. It also helps to use a non-slash delimiter for readability:

preg_match_all('~<(.*?)>(.*?)<\\\/(.*?)>~', $string, $arr);

edited Feb 20 '17 at 17:11

Peter Mortensen

30,738
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answered Feb 20 '17 at 02:51

But those new buttons though..

21,377
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for the record if you want to use `/` as a delimiter here you actually need to 5 backslashes for the whole sequence: `preg_match_all('/<(.*?)>(.*?)<\\\\\/(.*?)>/', $string, $arr);`. It's a bit absurd - hence why I'd just pick a different delimiter. glad it helped. – But those new buttons though.. Feb 20 '17 at 02:55

Catalin Minovici · Answer 3 · 2017-02-20T02:53:00.637

2

First of all, regex is not the best solution for parsing XML strings. I think with SimpleXml would be much easier.

$object = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlString);

I've read your comments. If I were you I would try to clean the XML and use it as an XML.. you're going to end up running in circles anyways by changing the regex rules if something changes in the response. Trim, replace make it a valid XML or .... maybe you can try getting the valid XML directly from the source

edited Feb 20 '17 at 02:53

answered Feb 20 '17 at 02:47

Catalin Minovici

181
1
13

that ``?\t\t\t\t\t\t?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t`` in my string will through exception using SimpleXMLElement. – Jacky Lau Feb 20 '17 at 02:49
even though I remove that, all the ``<\/XXXX>`` still fail in xml validator – Jacky Lau Feb 20 '17 at 02:50
@user3711105: is it too complicated to write `$xml = str_replace("\/", "/", trim($str,"? \t"));`? – Casimir et Hippolyte Feb 20 '17 at 05:33
You should expand your example to a very simple use case and add code tags but this is the best answer in my opinion. – LinkBerest Feb 20 '17 at 15:14

preg_match_all doesn't return a result

3 Answers3