Question

I guess I don’t give title nicely, anyways, I can explain it better here:

for example, the code is :

    <table>
            <tr>
                <td align="center"><span id="sn2">1</span></td>
                <td align="center"><div class="name">prakash</div></td>
                <td align="center"><span id="id2">student </span></td>
                <td><span id="surname1">timilsina</span></td>
                <td align="center"><span id="country1">nepal</span></td>
                <td align="center">date and time</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td align="center"><span id="sn2">2</span></td>
                <td align="center"><div class="name">aakash</div></td>
                <td align="center"><span id="id2">student</span></td>
                <td><span id="surname2">singh</span></td>
                <td align="center"><span id="country2">india</span></td>
                <td align="center">date and time</td>
            </tr>
    </table>

What we need to do using php is, get the value in array like this :

    prakash -> timilsina
    aakash  -> singh

only the name and surname from the table given. I have no idea how do I do this. hoping to get it solved here.

Thanks in advance
cheers

Answer 1

Using preg_match_all this becomes quite easy. Just the regular expression that might be complex if you’re not used to it. Look up a very complete tutorial at: http://www.regular-expressions.info/

<?php
$data = '
<table>
    <tr>
        <td align="center"><span id="sn2">1</span></td>
        <td align="center"><div class="name">prakash</div></td>
        <td align="center"><span id="id2">student </span></td>
        <td><span id="surname1">timilsina</span></td>
        <td align="center"><span id="country1">nepal</span></td>
        <td align="center">date and time</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td align="center"><span id="sn2">2</span></td>
        <td align="center"><div class="name">aakash</div></td>
        <td align="center"><span id="id2">student</span></td>
        <td><span id="surname2">singh</span></td>
        <td align="center"><span id="country2">india</span></td>
        <td align="center">date and time</td>
    </tr>
</table>';

$results = preg_match_all('#<div class="name">(.*?)</div>#i', $data, $matchesSurNames);
$results = preg_match_all('#<span id="surname[0-9]+">(.*?)</span>#i', $data, $matchesNames);

echo '<pre>';
var_dump($matchesSurNames[1]);
var_dump($matchesNames[1]);
echo '</pre>';

Will result in

array(2) {
  [0]=>
  string(7) "prakash"
  [1]=>
  string(6) "aakash"
}
array(2) {
  [0]=>
  string(9) "timilsina"
  [1]=>
  string(5) "singh"
}