Question

I’m trying to extract a value from a multiline pattern with PHP and preg_match.
The pattern I’m searching for within the string I’m passing to preg_match($regex, $string, $the_match):

Latitude:</td>
        <td class="formCell">
        40-45-40.205 N
       </tr>

I know that if it were all on one line like so:

Latitude:</td><td class="formCell">40-45-40.205 N</tr>

Then the following would be valid and it would properly extract the value:

/Latitude:<\/td><td class="formCell">(.*?)<\/tr>/

However, since the pattern I’m looking for has multiple lines the above regex doesn’t work. I’m getting the initial string I’m passing to preg_match() via file_get_contents($url) so I’m at the mercy of the remote content to some extent. Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

Use [\s\S] instead of ..

/Latitude:<\/td>[\s]*<td class="formCell">([\s\S]*?)<\/tr>/

. is a wildcard but does not include whitespace – including line break – characters. [\s\S] simply says "match all space and non-space characters" (i.e. anything at all).

Note I also allowed for optional space characters after </td>.

(Sidenote: the HTML is invalid – closing a table row before closing the table cell.)