preg_replace + regular expression

[EasyExpat]

Hi,
I've got a flat file such as:

<TITLE>Thursday 3rd March</TITLE><USER>Paul Smith</USER><ADDRESS>3, battersea square - SW12 3GE London - UK</ADDRESS>

I would like to retrieve the value of the parameters, i.e. have
$title='Thursday 3rd March'
$user='Paul Smith'
$address='3, battersea square - SW12 3GE London - UK'

So I tried the regular expression such as:
$title=preg_replace("'<TITLE[^{>]?>.?</TITLE>'",} "\1", $file);

But it gives me a result such as:<USER>Paul Smith</USER><ADDRESS>3, battersea square - SW12 3GE London - UK</ADDRESS>

Anybody can help?
Thanks in advance

[r270ba]

not familiar with XML but that is what it looks like you are working with correct???? if so there are some XML parsers if i am not mistaken. . .use that to assign values to variables

[EasyExpat]

I just used an XML format in case I need to transform that in XML in the future... but currently I am looking for a quick way with PHP. I could have put [TITLE] instead of <TITLE> it would have been the same thing for now...
If you've got any idea for using XML parcers, please post the exact detail as I am not familiar at all with XML...
Thans in advance

[leatherback]

Try this:

  //first find the matches
preg_match("#<TITLE>(.{0,})</TITLE>#", $file, $matches);
  // Then show the array with values
print_r($matches);
  // I think the $matches[1] holds the title:
$title = $matches[1];

Similar for the others.
J.

[r270ba]

Check in the documentation at www.php.net for all the string functions. ...I know you can use a tokenizer but I am not sure if that is the most efficient.

You would do something like this (syntax not accurate. . .just words)

for(until the end of file){
save all ascii between > < //will get all the text between <address>asdkfjasd;kfj</address>
go to the next >
}

This will go from <address>111 temp ln.</address><title>mr.</title>

until end of file. . .hope this is not too confusing. . .getting tired and hungry 🙂

r2

[EasyExpat]

BIG THANKS TO leatherback
It's exactly what I needed and it works fine.

Thanks also for your answer r270ba

[leatherback]

You're welcome.

Please makr the thread resolved (See link at bottom of page). This will avoid other people opening the page for nothing.

J.