Parseing multiple lines of a text file

Anon

Hi - I'm trying to set up a script that will access a text file, find a chunk of content, and process that content. No problems with that for one piece of content, but I'm not sure how to pull multiple pieces from the same text file. For example, the text file might be:

-Start- item1 -End-
-Start- item2 -End-
-Start- item3 -End-
-Start- item4 -End-

and I want to pull out each 'item' seperately and process it. I'd be greatful for any suggestions...

PS. I realize that getting this type of info from a text file isn't the best way to go, but I'm restricted in the way I can receive the data.

Anon

preg_match_all ("/-Start-(.*?)-End-/", $file, $items);

$items[1][$n] will contain item'n'

remember to use the DOTALL modifier if 'item' spans multiple lines.

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ru

Anon

Thanks for your help! That's definitely the route I'm looking for. I'm still having a bit of a problem and I think it has to do with the DOTALL modifier you mentioned. I've checked this out in the php manual, but I found it was unclear as to how exactly the modifier is applied. Do you have any advice?

Anon

okay, using

preg_match_all ("/-Start-(.*?)-End-/", $file, $items);

you put modifiers after the trailing slash in the pattern: in this case;

"/-Start-(.*?)-End-/s"

--
rad

Anon

You're a star! Thanks again.