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Is it possible to split the file contents using a custom pattern?

Answer 1

+5 A:

It's certainly possible, but it doesn't really need to be done with regex. I'd probably just do something like this:

$file = file_get_contents('http://example.com/');
$widgets = explode('<!-- widget -->', $file);

Now the odd elements of $widget ([1], [3], [5], etc) contain what was between those boundaries.

Chad Birch 2009-04-22 19:28:22

I didn't really think it is that easy! Many thanks really

Ahmad Fouad 2009-04-22 19:39:09

Answer 2

+1 A:

You can achieve what you want with a regular expression (or if you are only ever splitting on you can probably just use that). Check the documentation. The other answer using explode() will probably also work.

$text = file_get_contents('/path/to/your/file');
$array = split('<!-- widget -->', $text);

The first entry will be everything before the first occurrence of  and the last element will be everything after the last . Every odd-numbered element will be what you're looking for.

Php split function documentation

Brett Bender 2009-04-22 19:32:39

Very very nice. Quick question..is there any practical difference between explode and split?

Ahmad Fouad 2009-04-22 19:39:39

Not really, other than split() supports regular expressions while explode does not. Honestly, if you're not going to use a regular expression, you should probably use explode() as it is likely faster (has to do with php core loading the regular-expression related stuff for split but not explode).

Brett Bender 2009-04-22 19:42:40

Ok thanks for the explaination.. yes i will try to avoid regex since its doable with explode no need to make things complicated.

Ahmad Fouad 2009-04-22 19:43:56

Answer 3

+1 A:

$pattern = "/<!-- widget -->([\s\S]+)<!-- widget -->/";
$match = preg_match_all($pattern,$string,$match_array);

var_dump($match_array);

Lance Kidwell 2009-04-22 19:39:17

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Is it possible to split the file contents using a custom pattern?

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