Modification to regex to match time

Question

I want to take the 2012-07-16T21:00:00 out of the

 <abbr title="2012-07-16T21:00:00" class="dtstart">Monday, July 16th, 2012</abbr>

but I am having some difficulties. This is what I did

preg_match('/<abbr title="(.*)" \/>/i', $file_string, $time);
$time_out = $time[1];

Please refrain from parsing HTML with RegEx as it will [drive you į̷̷͚̤̤̖̱̦͍͗̒̈̅̄̎n̨͖͓̹͍͎͔͈̝̲͐ͪ͛̃̄͛ṣ̷̵̞̦ͤ̅̉̋ͪ͑͛ͥ͜a̷̘͖̮͔͎͛̇̏̒͆̆͘n͇͔̤̼͙̩͖̭ͤ͋̉͌͟eͥ͒͆ͧͨ̽͞҉̹͍̳̻͢](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454). Use an [HTML parser](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/292926/robust-mature-html-parser-for-php) instead. — Madara's Ghost, Jul 31 '12 at 15:11

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 31 '12 at 15:14

1

use

preg_match('/<abbr title="([^"]*)" \/>/i', $file_string, $time);

So your matcher will stop at first <<">> ([^"] means anything but ")

or

preg_match('/<abbr title="([0-9T:-]*)" \/>/i', $file_string, $time);

more precise, use group that contains only what you need to catch. (note the " is exluded)

edited Jul 31 '12 at 15:14

Joseph Silber

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answered Jul 31 '12 at 15:14

Arcadien

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Joseph Silber · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-31T15:18:36.153

0

While I don't think using a regex for this is the best approach, it might be OK in some circumstances.

If you're using a regex, this is what you need:

preg_match('/<abbr title="([^"]*)"/i', $file_string, $time);

See it here in action: http://viper-7.com/qZu9tj

edited Jul 31 '12 at 15:18

answered Jul 31 '12 at 15:13

Joseph Silber

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Unfortunately this does not get me anything in $time – EnexoOnoma Jul 31 '12 at 15:16
@Kaoukkos - I added a demo to the answer. Does that work for you? – Joseph Silber Jul 31 '12 at 15:18

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 31 '12 at 15:48

Try it this way instead of regex:

$dom = new DOMDocument;
$dom->loadXML($file_string);

$abbr = simplexml_import_dom($dom);

$time;
foreach ($abbr[0]->attributes() as $key => $value)
{
    if ($key == 'title')
    {
        $time = $value;
        break;
    }
}
echo $time;

Regex can be a pain for dealing with this sort of thing. Better to use a parser.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 31 '12 at 17:39

The best way would be to use an HTML parser, like PHP's DOM.

<?php

    $html = <<<HTML
<abbr title="2012-07-16T21:00:00" class="dtstart">Monday, July 16th, 2012</abbr>
HTML;

    $dom = new DOMDocument();
    $dom->loadHTML($html);
    $abbr  = $dom->getElementsByTagName("abbr")->item(0);
    $title = $abbr->getAttribute("title");

    echo $title;

That will work even if your data doesn't look exactly like that:

If there are other attributes before or after title.
If there are trailing spaces or other invisible characters.
Regardless of quote type (", ', or none).

So please, don't use RegEx, as it will eventuall cause you to lose your mind to cuthulu. The <center> cannot hold it is too late.

Modification to regex to match time

4 Answers4

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