preg_match_all help!

[Codemunkie]

Hello, i'm trying to retrieve some information from another website using preg match all.

 

Here is my current code i have, it works for my first match but no others.

<?php
$content = file_get_contents('http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Free_champion_rotation');

preg_match_all('#class="mw-redirect">(.*)</a></span></span></span>#', $content, $match, PREG_SET_ORDER);
echo $match[0][1];
?>

 

The html i am wanting to parse is here.

class="mw-redirect">Ahri</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Galio</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Graves</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Katarina</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Kog'Maw</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">LeBlanc</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Shen</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Skarner</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Soraka</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Warwick</a></span></span></span>

 

I'm only wanting to display the names after the class, which it does for 'Ahri' but nothing else.

 

Can anyone help me with this?

[ragax]

Hi Codemunkie!

 

Here is some working code for you:

 

Code:

<?php
$string='
class="mw-redirect">Ahri</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Galio</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Graves</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Katarina</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Kog\'Maw</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">LeBlanc</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Shen</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Skarner</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Soraka</a></span></span></span>
class="mw-redirect">Warwick</a></span></span></span>
';
$regex='#class="mw-redirect">(.*?)</a>#';
preg_match_all($regex, $string, $matches, PREG_PATTERN_ORDER);
$sz=count($matches[1]);
for ($i=0;$i<$sz;$i++) 
echo $matches[1][$i]."<br />";
?>

 

Output:

Ahri

Galio

Graves

Katarina

Kog'Maw

LeBlanc

Shen

Skarner

Soraka

Warwick

 

The tweaks:

- you needed a loop to iterate through the captures

- I made your dot-star (.*) lazy (the question mark). (Here is my page on greedy and lazy quantifiers if you'd like to read up on them.) Otherwise, the "greedy star" would cause the regex engine to roll all the way down to the end of the string, then to backtrack to the last </a> etc, giving you a much longer capture than you want.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Codemunkie]

Works like a charm! Thanks very much

[ragax]

Glad to hear it, Codemunkie, you're very welcome.