php parse without replacing

Question

i have seen some parsing code, thats really long, but it doesn't involve replacing stuff inside an opened file using file_get_contents() for example. im talking about say parsing a .doc into .html format, they read the file then output it in html. i have tried this using arrays and preg_replace but it just doesn't seem as clean as other code. anyone know the basic concept of parsing? thanks, tell me if im not clear

edit: say i have like from a doc file or rtf: \b text \b0

that would need to convert to text. but others do it without preg_replace or str_replace and stuff, almost as if they build the new page somehow.

Answer 1

Are you trying to "converting" a .doc into a .html file? That's not considered parsing. For something like that, try looking at antiword.

Why the downvote?