note 80081 added to function.preg-match

A quick example of using named recursion and negative lookaheads for finding the outermost div. You can use this same idea for any type of nested tags. <?php $sample = "lead in text to capture <div> outside div text <div> inner div text <div> deep nested text </div> </div> bottom of outside div text </div> end of text to capture"; preg_match( '#^(?P<a>.*?)(?P<b>.?<div((.(?!<div))|(?P>b))*?.</div>)(?P<c>.*?)$#s', $sample, $matches); echo "<pre>"; var_dump($matches); //$matches['a'] == "lead in text to capture" //$matches['b'] == the outermost <div> and child contents (with a leading space) //$matches['c'] == " end of text to capture" ?> ---- Server IP: 209.41.74.194 Probable Submitter: 76.104.240.254 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/80081 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80081/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80081/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80081/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80081/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80081/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80081/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/80081 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/80081 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php