preg_replace() with multiple lines

Question

Dear all, I have trouble again with preg_replace again. I terrible need a book for preg_replace

my intention is to replace <td> author </td> with <td> Level1 </td>

Any ideas? the <td> author </td> is wrapped with other HTML element

<td align="center">
  <a onclick="return listItemTask('cb1','block')" href="javascript:void(0);">
    <img width="16" height="16" border="0" alt="Blocked" src="images/tick.png">
  </a>
</td>
<td>
  Author
</td>

Answer 1

From Perl regular expression manual page: (or PHP PCRE docs)

Modifiers

Matching operations can have various modifiers. Modifiers that relate to the interpretation of the regular expression inside are listed below.

• s: Treat string as single line. That is, change "." to match any character whatsoever, even a newline, which normally it would not match.

Answer 2

A little code never hurts...

<?php
$string = '
<td align="center">
  <a onclick="return listItemTask(\'cb1\',\'block\')" href="javascript:void(0);">
    <img width="16" height="16" border="0" alt="Blocked" src="images/tick.png">
  </a>
</td>
<td>
  Author
</td>';

$string = preg_replace("/<td>.*Author.*<\/td>/s", "teste", $string);

echo $string;

?>

Do notice the \s modifier used to allow . to match newlines.