I Hate Regular Expressions! Can anyone help?

[LordLanky]

Hi All, i am trying to write a bit of php that will split a document written in html into chapters.

 

An example doc is:

 

<h1>The Work of an Idiot</h2>

<p>Edited by A Total Moron</p>

<h2>Chapter 1</h2>

<p>Here is some random text</p>

<h2>Chapter 2 - The Wrath of Khan's Mum</h2>

<p>Here is some more random text</p>

<h2>Chapter 3</h2>

<p>Again.. i can ramble for ages</p>

 

What i need is to split it into an array or a number of variables with each chunk being a chapter. So for example, an array called strChapters() being:

 

strChapters[0][text] => "<h1>The Work of an Idiot</h2><p>Edited by A Total Moron</p>"

strChapters[0][title] => ""

strChapters[1][text] => "<h2>Chapter 1</h2><p>Here is some random text</p>"

strChapters[1][title] => "Chapter 1"

strChapters[2][text] => "<h2>Chapter 2 - The Wrath of Khan's Mum</h2><p>Here is some more random text</p>"

strChapters[2][title] => "Chapter 2 - The Wrath of Khan's Mum"

strChapters[3][text] => "<h2>Chapter 3</h2><p>Again.. i can ramble for ages</p>"

strChapters[3][title] => "Chapter 3"

 

My guess is i need a robust regular expression to take into account the fact that a chapter string can contain a number and a title. I also need to have the title on its own as well.

 

I'm fairly good at php now, but this just escapes my experience. I was thinking of exploding on the word "chapter" but i dont want it to split it if it's just a word in a sentence, i.e. "as mentioned in chapter 2, Khan's not going to get any pocket money this month". Any help is really appreciated!

 

[JonnoTheDev]

You have not closed your H1 tag correctly!!!!

Try this helpful function.

<?php
function parseArray($string, $openTag, $closeTag, $excluding = false) {
preg_match_all("($openTag(.*)$closeTag)siU", $string, $matches);
if($excluding) {
	return $matches[1];
}
return $matches[0];
}

$string = "<h1>The Work of an Idiot</h1>
<p>Edited by A Total Moron</p>
<h2>Chapter 1</h2>
<p>Here is some random text</p>
<h2>Chapter 2 - The Wrath of Khan's Mum</h2>
<p>Here is some more random text</p>
<h2>Chapter 3</h2>
<p>Again.. i can ramble for ages</p>";

$array = parseArray($string,"<h1>","</p>");
$array = array_merge($array,parseArray($string,"<h2>","</p>"));

print "<xmp>";
print_r($array);
print "</xmp>";
?>