Converting perl matching to preg match

Anon

I have a perl script that reads an html file and puts it's contents into an array. Next it finds all of the lines that match a certain pattern and puts those lines into their own array. Finally it counts the number of items in that array and gives me the value that I am looking for. The code I use for that is as at the bottom. I am trying to determine how I need to go about this to do it in php. Would preg match be the correct function to use in the foreach statement, and how should I open/read the file and put its contents into an array?

Forum Total Number Add On

open(FORUM,"$forum_basedir/$mesgfile");
@forum_total = <FORUM>;
close(FORUM);

foreach $forum_line (@forum_total) { if ($forum_line =~ /<li><a href=$mesgdir\/\1.$ext>.<\/a> by .\s+<font size=-1 color=#CE0000>(.)<\/font>/) {

@forum_total_number = (@forum_total_number, $forum_line);
}
}

$forum_total_number = @forum_total_number;

van__

Well, if you're a complete PHP newbie, you might have some difficulty...
but if you wrote that perl script to begin with, it might not be that big of a challenge.
<?
$fData = file($file_name);

foreach ($fData as $line) {
if (preg_match('/<li><a href=$mesgdir\/\1.$ext>.<\/a> by .\s+<font size=-1 color=#CE0000&gt(.)<\/font>/is',$line,$preg_array)) {
$rData[] = array(0=>$preg_array[1]);
$rData[] = array(1=>$preg_array[2]);
}
}

echo "<p> total lines found: ".count($rData)."</p>";
//dump the array for source view:
print_r($rData);
?>

van__

actually...
this might be a better way to make the $rData array:
$rData[] = array(0=>$preg_array[1],1=>$preg_array[2]);

haven't tested any of it though.

Anon

Hmm, it's doing something but telling me total lines found is zero. Are perl wildcards and class definitions throwing it off maybe? Am using (.), ., \s+, etc

Thanks for your advice. To answer your questions I did write the original in perl and I am pretty new to php.

Anon

If I have it search for an (exact) actual line that is in the file and escape all of the /'s in closing html tags and the like, it finds the line and returns this:

total lines found: 1

Array ( [0] => Array ( [0] => [1] => ) )

Guess I just need to study up on php wildcards I can use for class definitions so it will know to look for things like ip numbers, message numbers and names now. Seems like I'm on my way.

Anon

Doh! Actually, if I just shorten it and look for lines containing !--top it finds what I am looking for and doesn't need to sort through the rest of the lines. Thanks for your help. :o)

Will have to come back and study more on preg_match and class definitions later though.