regular expresion for tags

cristiroman

I want to serch for a string in a mysql database, but I do not need the records in witch the string is inside a html tag. For example:

I search for "font". The record "sometextwithoutkey<font size=1>a</font>sometextwithoutkey"

is not a match, because "font" is betwwen < and >.

The record "sometextwithoutkey<font size=1>font</font>sometextwithoutkey"

is ok because i have a match for "font" that is not between < and >

I hope you understand. Please I need this as quick as possible

erikwebb

Have you tried searching for "font" between > and < rather than < and >?

tbach2

I suppose you could use LIKE and NOT LIKE, ie

WHERE field LIKE '%font%' AND field NOT LIKE '%<font%'

But, that would be a horribly inefficient search since it can't use an index.

cristiroman

I want to make a search engine that search for a key in a database that contains the html source of a lot of articles. Now I do not want to optain the records that contains the key in a html tag.

Another example would be: If i search yima

<a href="images/myimage.gif">saf</a> - not needed

<a href="images/myimage.gif">this is myimage. look at it</a> - is ok

I need the regular expression fir this. Can anyone help ?

cassius

This gives an introduction to Regular Expressions:

http://cyrus.stud.hive.no/Basic_Syntax_Regular_Expressions.pdf

Maybe it can help you a bit.