regex confusion

[Anon]

Hi. I have the following line...

$body = preg_split( '/<\/textarea>/i', $filedata );

I really just don't understand what will happen. From what I understand (by reading up on regular expressions and their use) is that will find either a <textarea> or </textarea> (* being anything after the a)

How does preg_split split the values? Does it count the result of the <textarea>?

Basically I'm trying to go to a document (via HTTP) and grab anything between <textarea> and </textarea>

Any insight would be appreciated.

Regards,

Nate

[rdhatt]

try this simpler method:

$stuff = preg_match("/<textarea>(.*)<\/textarea>/sm", $html);

you'll want $stuff[1]

[[deleted]]

preg_split() splits a string into parts, and stores them in an array, so you'd be better of using preg_match, which finds matches for your regexp, and stores only the matches in an array. Look at Ricky's post.

Then the regexp itself:

/<\/textarea>/i

this will match:
"<"
followed by zero or more "*"
followed by textare
followed by zero or more "a"
followed by ">"

If you want to match "anything" use (.)
But, anything includes ">", so it won't work as expected.
Instead, you'll want to match with "anything but >"
which is written like this:
[^>]