Re: extract data from html

> > > 1. Open the html file in read only mode > > > 2. Start reading the html file till I encounter a <td> tag (I don't know > > > how to do this) > > > 3. Grab that data after the <td> tag (and then what?) > > > > See <http://php.net/manual/en/function.fopen.php> > > and > > <http://php.net/manual/en/function.fgetss.php> plus > > the chapter for > > whatever DBMS you want to drop the file contents into. > > Thanks. One thing just reading the manual without the idea of how the > function works is of no use. Some examples would help. In fact I did use > fopen, fgets, fgetss but the problems is that the html tag that I am > looking is <td>. Now this is easy but if <td width="25%"> or <td > colspan="7"> would give a problem. (grimace) The PHP manual is actually very well written; I can usually find exactly what I need in < 10s. I think your complaint just covers sloppy thinking. I'd think you should be able to find screen-scraper code around; if not, try this: - search for '<td'. NOTE: use a case-insensitive search! - search for the first trailing '>'. Save (this character position + 1). - search for the first trailing '</td>'. Again, case-insensitive! - store everything between the two; strip all HTML tags, add slashes, and store it. - increment your file position by 5 characters and repeat. I'd give you actual code, but I think you could use some manual practice (smirk).