note 51739 added to reference.pcre.pattern.modifiers

Extracting lines of text: You might want to grab a line of text within a multiline piece of text. For example, suppose you want to replace the first and last lines within the <body> portion of a web $page with your own $lineFirst and $lineLast. Here's one possible way: <?php $lineFirst = "This is a new first line<br>\r\n"; $lineLast = "This is a new last line<br>\r\n"; $page = <<<EOD <html><head> <title>This is a test page</title> </head><body> This is the first line<br> Hi Fred<br> Hi Bill<br> This is the last line<br> </body> </html> EOD; $re = "/<body>.*^(.+)(^.*?^)(.+)(^<\\/body>.*?)/smU"; if (preg_match($re, $page, $aMatch, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE)) $newPage = substr($text, 0, $aMatch[1][1]) . $lineFirst . $aMatch[2][0] . $lineLast . $aMatch[4][0]; print $newPage; ?> The two (.+) are supposed to match the first and last lines within the <body> tag. The /s option (dot all) is needed so the .* can also match newlines. The /m option (multiline) is needed so that the ^ can match newlines. The /U option (ungreedy) is needed so that the .* and .+ will only gobble up the minimum number of characters necessary to get to the character following the * or +. The exception to this, however, is that the .*? temporarily overrides the /U setting on .* turning it from non greedy to greedy. In the middle, this ensures that all the lines except the first and last (within the <body> tag) are put into $aMatch[2]. At the end, it ensures that all the remaining characters in the string are gobbled up, which could also have been achieved by .*)\\z/ instead of .*?)/ Csaba Gabor from Vienna ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.modifiers.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+51739 Delete: added to the manual -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+51739&report=yes&reason=added+to+the+manual Delete: bad code -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+51739&report=yes&reason=bad+code Delete: spam -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+51739&report=yes&reason=spam Delete: useless -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+51739&report=yes&reason=useless Delete: other reasons -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+51739&report=yes Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+51739&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php