How to gather the text inside HTML-links via regular expression?

Question

I have got a string with links (as a-elements inside a unordered list (<li>), in HTML). How can I use the correct regular expression to parse it?

I need to get the array of this values:

[
    "Керамическая плитка", 
    "Напольные покрытия"
]

Base HTML (example):

<li><a href="/plitka/">Керамическая плитка</a></li> 
<li><a href="/napolnye-pokrytiya/">Напольные покрытия</a></li> 
<li><a href="/oboi/">Обои</a></li> 
<li><a href="/mebel-dlia-vannoi/">Мебель для ванной</a></li> 
<li><a href="/santehnika/">Сантехника</a></li>

Thank you very much. Really appreciate your help!

Welcome to Stack Overflow. Please read up on how to provide a [Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable example](https://stackoverflow.com/help/mcve) You may also benefit from [How to ask](https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask) and [What is expected of SO users](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/261592/how-much-research-effort-is-expected-of-stack-overflow-users) — mtr.web, Mar 18 '19 at 17:55
Hi, welcome to Stack Overflow. Could you edit your question to clarify it a bit please. Please include your relevant PHP code, and clarify (if the code doesn't) exactly what you are parsing. Also please either explain why css is relevant or remove that tag. Thanks. — MandyShaw, Mar 18 '19 at 17:58
Are you trying to get the value of each `` tag? For example, 'parsing' `
Parse them for what? You need to be explicit when it comes to what you're actually asking about. — M. Eriksson, Mar 18 '19 at 18:00
Thanks for answers. I need to get the arrey of this values: Керамическая плитка Напольные покрытия ... — Stephan Golubev, Mar 18 '19 at 18:02
Just a note. If you need to parse HTML, [you shouldn't use regular expressions](https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/2453432). Use something like [DOMDocument](http://php.net/manual/en/class.domdocument.php) instead. — M. Eriksson, Mar 18 '19 at 18:04

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '19 at 18:06

2

A parser is the tool you should use, not a regex. Something like this:

<?php
$links = '<li><a href="/plitka/">Керамическая плитка</a></li> 
<li><a href="/napolnye-pokrytiya/">Напольные покрытия</a></li> 
<li><a href="/oboi/">Обои</a></li> 
<li><a href="/mebel-dlia-vannoi/">Мебель для ванной</a></li> 
<li><a href="/santehnika/">Сантехника</a></li>';
$dom = new domdocument();
$dom->loadhtml('<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?>' . $links);
$links = $dom->getelementsbytagname('a');
foreach($links as $link) {
    echo $link->nodeValue . PHP_EOL;
}

can retrieve the a's node values. If the path is more specific use xpath.

https://3v4l.org/b1lKZ

answered Mar 18 '19 at 18:06

user3783243

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I can't use parser tool, it is not buit in php. So i whanted to write regex for this purpose? How do i do this? – Stephan Golubev Mar 18 '19 at 18:10
@StephanGolubev What PHP version are you using? `domdocument` should be there, http://php.net/manual/en/class.domdocument.php – user3783243 Mar 18 '19 at 18:11
Sorry, I'll check that. – Stephan Golubev Mar 18 '19 at 18:13
@user3783243 - DOMDocument depends on the xml-extension which isn't installed/enabled by default on many systems. I think you usually need to install it manually on Ubuntu, for example. – M. Eriksson Mar 18 '19 at 18:21
@StephanGolubev - Why can't you install/enable the xml extension? You're basically saying that you can't use the right tool for the job. – M. Eriksson Mar 18 '19 at 18:23

How to gather the text inside HTML-links via regular expression?

1 Answers1