Content Extracting

ACJavascript

02-11-2006, 02:20 AM

Hey all,

Okay, I have a personal NASCAR league in the works, and I am sick of updating the records myself. So, I wanted to pull the content from this page:

http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2005/data/standings_official.html

and read the standings then update my own table.

So far I've got:

$myfile=file_get_contents("http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2005/data/standings_official.html");

Now my question is - Should I use preg_match_all to scan through the TD's?
or is there a better method?

Any ANY help is greatly appreciated! :)

chump2877

02-11-2006, 05:34 AM

I was bored so here you go, you can format the table however you like....let me know if you have questions:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE></TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

<?

$myfile = file_get_contents("http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2005/data/standings_official.html");

$start = strpos($myfile, "Winnings");
$finish = strpos($myfile, "* Denotes Rookie");

$length = $finish - $start;

$string = substr($myfile,$start,$length);

$string = str_replace('>','>~',$string);

$string = str_replace('</tr>','</tr>^',$string);

$string = strip_tags($string);

$string = substr($string,10);

trim($string);

$lines = explode("^",$string);

print "<table cellpadding=5>";

foreach ($lines as $key => $val)
{
if (strlen($val) < 30)
{
unset($lines[$key]);
continue;
}

$data = explode("~",$lines[$key]);

print "<tr>";

foreach ($data as $key => $val)
{
if ($val == "" || $val =="*")
{
unset($data[$key]);
continue;
}

print "<td>" . $val . "</td>";
}

print "</tr>";
}

print "</table>";

?>

</BODY>
</HTML>

ACJavascript

02-11-2006, 07:18 PM

Hey chump2877, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Sweet! :D

chump2877

02-11-2006, 10:31 PM

you're welcome :thumbsup:

hopefully you understand how the code works...you don;t need to use regular expressions for what you want to do....

ACJavascript

02-11-2006, 10:34 PM

Yes, I do understand the code, you have open my eyes :D

This is great! thanks!

Element

02-12-2006, 09:33 PM

Though, regular expressions would shorten the code probably by 3/4 and speed up the script.

ACJavascript

02-13-2006, 04:05 AM

Hey Element,

Right now speed isnt' an issue, but for future reference, do you have some code?? Would like to see hwo its done.

chump2877

02-13-2006, 04:28 AM

regex gives me headaches, that's why i didn't use it....:D

ACJavascript

02-13-2006, 06:25 AM

Me two man, but good to learn hehe :D