[SOLVED] getting rid of a superfluous <span>

[defeated]

I'm stuck!

I need to know how to phrase an expression to get rid of a second span.

It goes something like this...

<span style='font-weight:bold;'><span style='font-weight:bold;'>some text</span></span>

Obviously I only need one span rather than two.

It goes

$description=preg_replace("what goes here???","",$description);

My head is melting!

[effigy]

This will cause problems if the spans are actually different, because it will remove the additional </span>. Will this occur in your data?

 

<pre>
<?php
$data = "<span style='font-weight:bold;'><span style='font-weight:bold;'>some text</span>";
echo htmlspecialchars(preg_replace('%(</?span[^>]*>)\1+%', '$1', $data));
?>
</pre>

[defeated]

All spans should be the same.  I replaced all spans with the ones above (or rather you did! thanks again) and then I replaced all <strong> tags with the same span tags.... thus the double occurance in places.  I'll put in the code you just gave me and see what transpires.

[sasa]

try

<?php
$text = "<span style='font-weight:bold;'>bla <span style='font-weight:bold;'>some text</span></span>";

echo preg_replace("/(?<=<span style='font-weight:bold;'>)(.*?)<span style='font-weight:bold;'>(.*?)<\/span>(?=<\/span>)/i",'\1\2',$text);
?>

[defeated]

Code starts

$query=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM mytable") or die (mysql_error());
while($result=mysql_fetch_array($query)){
$initialdescription=$result['description'];

then there is a bit more code with replaces etc thats all fine.

 

Then I used

 

$description=preg_replace('%(?span[^>]*>)\1+%','$1',$description);

Then I have

$description=mysql_real_escape($description);

 

Then

mysql_query("UPDATE mytable SET description='$description' WHERE description='$initialdescription'") or die(mysql_error());
}

It wont work. 

If I remove

WHERE description='$initialdescription'

then it runs but it updates all the descriptions to be the same... would have been a disaster if I hadn't backed it up.

If I leave it in I get a mysql error because it doesn't seem to like something caused by mysql_real_escape I presume.

I'm really in the dark here.... way out of my depth.

error is

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'text-align:center;'> Pharmacy Technician&nb' at line 5

I don't understand it. I'm told there is nothing wrong with the mysql syntax. Any ideas?

 

[effigy]

Run $initialdescription through mysql_real_escape_string before placing it in the SQL.

[defeated]

I'd just gone for a long walk on the beach with the dog... and while I was out came up with exactly that.

Nice to see it there waiting for me when I got back to confirm my thoughts!

topic solved!!!!!!