reg ex help

[eelco]

Hi,

I try to remove a table from a html string
with ereg_replace.
I put an id in the table so when there are standing two tables in the string it will only remove the right one.

The input string is:

<table id="plaatje1" class="bodytekst" align="right" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td><img src="file:///C|/apache/htdocs/wiggers/wiggers_site/home/wig_logo.gif" width="150" height="41"></td></tr></table>dsfsdafgasdgasg<br>dsagsfgfsdgdsfg<table id="plaatje2" class="bodytekst" align="left" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td><img src="file:///C|/apache/htdocs/wiggers/wiggers_site/home/wig_logo.gif" width="150" height="41"></td></tr></table>

I tried to do it with the reg ex:
(<\/table>.plaatje1.<\/table>)

But this removes both tables from the string.

Can someone help me with this.

[Anon]

http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlfaq6.html#What-does-it-mean-that-regexes-are-greedy---How-can-I-get-around-it-

[eelco]

I'm not yet smart enough to be able to adjust my regex using (??, *?, +?, {}?).
Can you give me a hint?

Thanks in advance

[[deleted]]

What DLB so politely explained is that your expression is indeed greedy.

That means, the you have in there will match anything. That includes the pattern that comes after the , so in your case it will match all the way to the end of the string, including the end-of-table tag.

You should get a better result by making your * non-greedy by putting a ? after them.

Then they will match anything upto the pattern after them, so they will match anything except the end-of-table tag.

[eelco]

He great i changed the regex to (<\/table>.?plaatje1.?<\/table>)
And now it work like it should.

Thank you both verry much!

Maybe you can help me putting in backreferencing in my regex?

Say i wan't to be able to remove just any tag (and it's content) with a sertain id.
I would change the regex to:
(<\/([a-zA-Z]?)>.?plaatje1.*?<\/\1>)
right?

Maybe you know some good sites with good deep info about this topic?
I will also explore http://www.perldoc.com/t?perlre from DLB.

Thanks in advance

[Anon]

Sorry if my URL-only response seemed a bit terse. That was the result of a quick search for "regular expression" on a search engine.

I don't have a good suggestion for a regular expression tutorial. It's such a vital tool yet is so cryptic to use if you're out of practice -- there has to be a good tutorial somewhere. You might try some web development web sites (webmonkey.com is one) for help. When you do have things figured out, I strongly recommend creating a cheat sheet for yourself.

Good luck.

[[deleted]]

"Sorry if my URL-only response seemed a bit terse."

No problem dude :-)

The perl-cpmpatible REGEX syntax is also available in the PHP manual:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/pcre.pattern.syntax.php

and I found this tut on devshed:
http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/Administration/RegExp/page1.html

[eelco]

Thank you both verry much for the help and site suggestions.

On this site DLB mentioned i also found some interesting material http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html.

Thanks again.