Question

I have three possible HTTP Post returns that I’m trying to get an Array out of with PHP 5.1.6.
I’m not exactly sure on the terminology of this (sorry).

<?PHP
// Values the $var could be:
$var = "<STATUS>SUCCESS</STATUS><BR><TIME>Mon Oct 17 20:44:41 PDT 2011</TIME>"; 
// OR
$var = "<STATUS>REJECTED</STATUS>"; 
// OR
$var = "<STATUS>ERROR</STATUS></BR><VALIDATION MESSAGE>200-Service and Zipcode is required.</VALIDATION MESSAGE> ";

// Output I'd like to see:
$array = Array ( 
            ['STATUS'] => 'SUCCESS', 
            ['TIME'] => 'Mon Oct 17 20:44:41 PDT 2011',
            ['VALIDATION MESSAGE'] => '' 
        );
// OR
$array = Array ( 
            ['STATUS'] => 'REJECTED', 
            ['TIME'] => '',
            ['VALIDATION MESSAGE'] => '' 
        );
//OR
$array = Array ( 
            ['STATUS'] => 'ERROR', 
            ['TIME'] => '',
            ['VALIDATION MESSAGE'] => '200-Service and Zipcode is required.' 
        );

//Another way to look at the desired output array would be:
/*    
  Array
        (
            [STATUS] => SUCCESS
            [TIME] => Mon Oct 17 20:44:41 PDT 2011
            [VALIDATION MESSAGE] => 
        )
// OR
  Array
        (
            [STATUS] => REJECTED
            [TIME] => 
            [VALIDATION MESSAGE] => 
        )
// OR 
  Array
        (
            [STATUS] => ERROR
            [TIME] => Mon Oct 17 20:44:41 PDT 2011
            [VALIDATION MESSAGE] => 
        )
*/
?>

Maybe a preg_match or ??? (preg_match is still a little baffling to me at this point)
I’ve been spinning my wheels thus far.

Thanks!

Answer 1

As you have a simple pattern, you can just parse it with sscanf and assign it to the array keys:

$var = "<STATUS>SUCCESS</STATUS><BR><TIME>Mon Oct 17 20:44:41 PDT 2011</TIME>";

$r = sscanf($var, '<STATUS>%[^<]</STATUS><BR><TIME>%[^<]</TIME>', 
            $array['STATUS'], $array['TIME']);

$array:

Array
(
    [STATUS] => SUCCESS
    [TIME] => Mon Oct 17 20:44:41 PDT 2011
)

Demo / Demo (old)