I would like to know how to get multiple occurrences from a regex.
$str = "Some validations <IF TEST>firstValue</IF> in <IF OK>secondValue</IF> end of string.";
$do = preg_match("/<IF(.*)>.*<\/IF>/i", $str, $matches);
This is what I've done so far. It works if I have only 1 , but if I have more it doesn't return the right values. Here is the result:
Array ( [0] => firstValue in secondValue [1] => TEST>firstValue in
I need to get the "TEST" and the "OK" values.
EDIT: I've brought the modifications suggested, thanks a lot it works fine ! However, I am now trying to add a elsif parameter and can't get it to work well. Here is what I've done:
$do = preg_match_all("~<IF([^<>]+)>([^<>]+)(</IF>|<ELSEIF([^<>]+)>([^<>]+)</IF>)~", $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
and the results is
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[0] => firstValuesecondValue
[1] => TEST
[2] => firstValue
[3] => secondValue
[4] => TEST1
[5] => secondValue
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => thirdValue
[1] => OK
[2] => thirdValue
[3] =>
)
)
Is there a way to make my array more clean ? It has many elements which are useless like the [0][4] etc.
You should make the regex more specific. The .*
that you are using should either be less greedy, or better yet disallow other angle brackets:
~<IF([^<>]+)>([^<>]+)</IF>~i
More importantly, you should use preg_match_all
, not just preg_match
.
preg_match_all("~<IF([^<>]+)>([^<>]+)</IF>~i", $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
That'll give you a nested array like:
[0] => Array
(
[0] => <IF TEST>firstValue</IF>
[1] => TEST
[2] => firstValue
)
[1] => Array
(
[0] => <IF OK>secondValue</IF>
[1] => OK
[2] => secondValue
)
The answers pointing out that you should use preg_match_all
are correct.
But there is another problem: the .*
is greedy by default. This will cause it to match both tags in a single match, so you need to make the star non-greedy (i.e. lazy):
/<IF(.*?)>.*?<\/IF>/i
Use a non-greedy match .*?
and preg_match_all
for this purpose.
Use this code:
$string = "Some validations <IF TEST>firstValue</IF> in <IF OK>secondValue</IF> end of string.";
$regex = "/<IF (.*?)>.*?<\/IF>/i";
preg_match_all($regex, $string, $matches);
print_r($matches[1]);
You regex is good but you have to use the non-greedy mode adding the ?
char and use the preg_match_all()
function.