Randall-B
asked on
preg_replace to Remove Only Certain Rows from HTML Table
An html table stored in a variable as a lot of rows like this, and I want to remove only some of them, depending on what is in the spot that says "Some Words Here":
<TR VALIGN="middle" BGCOLOR="#CCEEFF">
<TD NOWRAP>
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
</TR>
Let's say one of the rows has "This is nice" instead of "Some words here." I tried this regex, but it was ignored:
$table = preg_replace('/<TR VALIGN=\"middle\" BGCOLOR=\"#CCEEFF\"><TD NOWRAP>
<FONT FACE=\"Arial\,Helvetica\,s
<\/TR>/is', '', $table);
How can I make this work to delete the row that has "This is nice"?
Also, if I have several specific rows to delete (identified by different key words), would it make sense to explode all the rows into an array and then delete the array elements that contain the given keywords? If so, how?
<TR VALIGN="middle" BGCOLOR="#CCEEFF">
<TD NOWRAP>
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
<FONT FACE="Arial,Helvetica,sans
</TR>
Let's say one of the rows has "This is nice" instead of "Some words here." I tried this regex, but it was ignored:
$table = preg_replace('/<TR VALIGN=\"middle\" BGCOLOR=\"#CCEEFF\"><TD NOWRAP>
<FONT FACE=\"Arial\,Helvetica\,s
<\/TR>/is', '', $table);
How can I make this work to delete the row that has "This is nice"?
Also, if I have several specific rows to delete (identified by different key words), would it make sense to explode all the rows into an array and then delete the array elements that contain the given keywords? If so, how?
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ASKER
Never mind, I got the regex working, but I'd still appreciate your comments on the second part. Thanks.
ASKER
I found a way to get around the problem of unusual spaces, tab characters, carriage ret urns, and line breaks in the html code is to remove all kinds of white space between, before, and after html tags at the beginning, before ever using the regex to remove individual rows. For example:
FIRST:
$table = preg_replace('/>\s+</', '><', $table);
$table = preg_replace('/>\s+/', '>', $table);
$table = preg_replace('/\s+</', '<', $table);
THEN: Delete the desired row, using a less-specific regex to match only the keyword, like:
$table = preg_replace('/<TR(.*?)Thi
Actually, because the regex is so general, the prior removal of all white space between, after, and before the html tags probably is not needed and could slow down the script a little.
(Also, one would have to make sure that removing all those white spaces does not foul up the visible html in other rows, depending on the layout of the particular html table: e.g., the space between a word and a hyperlink should not be removed if needed for the visible page, or the sapce between "<b>this is bold</b> <i>but</i>this is italic</i>".)
Since VoteyDisciple's answer helped me think about the solution of making the regex much more general, I'm accepting his answer, although I think this latest approach is best. Thanks.
FIRST:
$table = preg_replace('/>\s+</', '><', $table);
$table = preg_replace('/>\s+/', '>', $table);
$table = preg_replace('/\s+</', '<', $table);
THEN: Delete the desired row, using a less-specific regex to match only the keyword, like:
$table = preg_replace('/<TR(.*?)Thi
Actually, because the regex is so general, the prior removal of all white space between, after, and before the html tags probably is not needed and could slow down the script a little.
(Also, one would have to make sure that removing all those white spaces does not foul up the visible html in other rows, depending on the layout of the particular html table: e.g., the space between a word and a hyperlink should not be removed if needed for the visible page, or the sapce between "<b>this is bold</b> <i>but</i>this is italic</i>".)
Since VoteyDisciple's answer helped me think about the solution of making the regex much more general, I'm accepting his answer, although I think this latest approach is best. Thanks.
ASKER
And, regarding the second part of the question, the way to find and remove an element of an array (based on whether it contains a particular word), is explained at http:Q_20096945.html . It involves
array_search() and array_splice
array_search() and array_splice
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ASKER
For some reason I still can't get it to work. Please copy and paste the exact variable value and the exact regex that you're using. Then I'll copy and paste exactly from it, to test.
Also, I'd appreciate a comment on the second part of the question: If I am going to be inserting only certain rows into a database (after deleting certain rows identified by different key words), would it make sense to explode all the rows into an array and then delete the array elements that contain the given keywords? If so, how? Or would that just complicate matters; should I just use regex to remove the rows before exploding into an array? Thanks.