asked on

php script to find a matching word and parse the number after it in a variable

I have a script that breaks down each line by itself, what I need to do is to have the php script to look at each line and if the first word = NTP: then to get the number after it and assign it echo that number only.

so say you have these three lines
$data= "ORDER 5434 processed on time
NTP: +44332.43 was accepted
UTC: +5 approved";

so if I pass these three lines in, it should catch that NTP: and print +44332.43

what is the best way to do it. It is simple but there are so many string functions I do not know which to use and I have been a bit rusty.

hielo

preg_match('#NTP:\s+(.+)#', $data,$match);
print_r($match);

onlinerack

ASKER

the + can also be a - and I would like that to be captured and be displayed.

hielo

preg_match('#NTP:\s+([+-]\S+)#', $data,$match);
print_r($match);

Dave Baldwin

Here's a demo of one way to do it. Displays the whole string first and then extracts the value after NTP:.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

<html>
<head>
<title>Order Process</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php 
$data= "ORDER 5434 processed on time
 NTP: +44332.43 was accepted
 UTC: +5 approved";

 echo $data."<br><br>";
 $pieces = explode(" ", $data);
 reset($pieces);
 $ii = 9; // something greater than 0
while (list(, $value) = each($pieces)) {
    $ii++;
		if(strcmp("NTP:",$value) == 0) $ii = 0;
		if($ii == 1) { 
			echo $value;
			break;
			}
	}

 ?>
</body>
</html>

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hielo

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onlinerack

ASKER

I will give that a try and let you know tomorrow... thank you very much guys.

if I can add one twist would be nice but this is optional if too much work do not worry about it.

say I have 6 lines, with multiple NTP: how would you word to catch the numbers:

$data="ORDER 5434 processed on time
NTP: +44332.43 was accepted
UTC: +5 approved
ORDER 5434 processed on time
NTP: -0.3223.43 was accepted
UTC: +6 approved";

SOLUTION

Dave Baldwin

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SOLUTION

hielo

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onlinerack

ASKER

Thank you, I was able to take your recommendations and modify my script based on your recommendations which lead me to the solution.... very much appreciated.