PHP - Parsing String From HTML File

Question

Hey guys I'm parsing a bunch of data from an html file in PHP using the preg_match_all($pattern, $htmlPage, $matches) method (regular expressions) and am having some issues creating the pattern for the following string: href="http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/player/putlocker.php?id=12VT1372H42OKWGKW" target="_blank"><div>TV Show Season 2 Episode 1.

The pattern consists of two strings with a wildcard string in the middle. This should be fairly simple but I am having trouble escaping the proper characters in the strings on either side of wildcard string. Here is an example of a pattern I have tried.

//Pattern escaping " and < charecters
$patern = "/href=\"http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/player/.*\" target=\"_blank\">\<div>TV Show Season 2 Episode 1/";

I have tried a couple other patterns but all failed. In all attempts I use the regular expression .* to signify the wildcard string. What is the correct pattern to parse all occurrences of this string out of an HTML file?

So the html file contains valid HTML? then regex should not be used. — mickmackusa, Jul 13 '22 at 08:54

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 30 '13 at 04:21

1

Try also escaping your inner / characters:

"/href=\"http:\/\/www.free-tv-video-online.me\/player\/.*\" target=\"_blank\"><div>TV Show Season 2 Episode 1/"

answered Nov 30 '13 at 04:21

DavidRR

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I think that may be it because I know that `/` are used to define new patterns in regular expressions. – ScottOBot Nov 30 '13 at 04:28

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 30 '13 at 04:24

1

http://www.phpliveregex.com/p/2lc

preg_match("/href=\"http\:\/\/www\.free\-tv\-video\-online\.me\/player\/.*\" target=\"_blank\">\<div>TV Show Season 2 Episode 1/", 'href="http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/player/putlocker.php?id=12VT1372H42OKWGKW" target="_blank"><div>TV Show Season 2 Episode 1', $output);

$output will look like this:

Array
(
    [0] => href="http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/player/putlocker.php?id=12VT1372H42OKWGKW" target="_blank"><div>TV Show Season 2 Episode 1
)

answered Nov 30 '13 at 04:24

bagonyi

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Yeah I figured it out, I used the pattern outlined above. It didn't work at first but I took another look at the HTML page and I was missing some `\n` and `\t` characters but I got it to work! Thanks @bagonyi – ScottOBot Dec 02 '13 at 17:57

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 30 '13 at 04:05

0

You added an extra /. 9th character on the second pattern. Just take it out.

Edit: Now the first pattern since you've edited the original post.

answered Nov 30 '13 at 04:05

brian

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I'm really sorry I think that is a product of improper translation on my behalf. I just updated the original question. – ScottOBot Nov 30 '13 at 04:12
That pattern matches the string you provided. What else do you require? – brian Nov 30 '13 at 04:16

PHP - Parsing String From HTML File

3 Answers3