what does this mean (.*)

kevinkhan

10-26-2009, 04:17 PM

oracleguy

10-26-2009, 04:25 PM

That string is a regular expression. The .* means match any character 0 or more times.

kevinkhan

10-26-2009, 04:41 PM

Lamped

10-26-2009, 04:45 PM

I came across this line in a code that i have and i dont know what it means

$strContent = file_get_contents($strListingUrl);

$strListMatches = '!<a class="details" href="(.*)" title="(.*)">(.*)</a>!isU';

$objListMatches = getMatches($strListMatches,$strContent);

can anyone explain it in simple english for me please

Yeah, what oracleguy said, except... It doesn't work...

$strListMatches = '!<a class="details" href="(.*?)" title="(.*?)">(.*?)</a>!isU';

Or...

$strListMatches = '!<a class="details" href="([^"]*)" title="([^"]*)">(.*?)</a>!isU';

Why doesn't it work, I hear you cry?!

<a class="details" href="a" title="b">c</a><a class="details" href="d" title="e">f</a>

Will match the first:
href="a"
as
href="a" title="b">c</a><a class="details" href="d
Because .* also matches the closing "

oracleguy

10-26-2009, 05:07 PM

so does this code mean that it gets everything in a page and sets it as a variable $strContent and then takes everything out that matches

'!<a class="details" href="(.*)" title="(.*)">(.*)</a>!isU'

and puts them into $objListMatches

Yes?

is $objListMatches now an array?????

Thanks for your help

getMatches isn't a standard PHP function, it must be a user created one so I can't say what it is doing without seeing the implementation.

Yeah, what oracleguy said, except... It doesn't work...

$strListMatches = '!<a class="details" href="(.*?)" title="(.*?)">(.*?)</a>!isU';

Or...

$strListMatches = '!<a class="details" href="([^"]*)" title="([^"]*)">(.*?)</a>!isU';

Why doesn't it work, I hear you cry?!

<a class="details" href="a" title="b">c</a><a class="details" href="d" title="e">f</a>

Will match the first:
href="a"
as
href="a" title="b">c</a><a class="details" href="d
Because .* also matches the closing "

Yep you're right; using the period character like that is a common mistake made by people inexperienced with regular expressions.

chyssa

10-27-2009, 03:21 AM

Thanks for sharing your codes...