fetch data code?

[brainlag]

I found a code and tried to manipulate it so I could get information from a website, but I am having no luck at all. I can either get most of the page, which I don't want or I get nothing at all.

I'm very new to PHP and I've no clue where I'm going wrong.

<?
if(!($myFile=fopen("http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=41004","r")))
{
echo "The news interface is down for maintenance.";
exit;
}
while(!feof($myFile))
{
$myLine.=fgets($myFile,255);
}
fclose($myFile);
$start="<i>Click on the graph icon in the table below to see a time series plot of the last five days of that observation.</i></p></td></tr><tr><td><a href=\"/show_plot.php?station=41004&amp;meas=wdir&amp;uom=E\"><img alt=\"5-day plot - Wind Direction\" src=\"/images/graph04.gif\" border=\"0\"></a></td><td>Wind Direction (WDIR):</td><td>";
$end="</td></tr>";
$start_position=strpos($myLine, $start);
$end_position=strpos($myLine, $end)+strlen($end);
$length=$end_position-$start_position;
$myLine=substr($myLine, $start_position, $length);
// Display HTML
echo $myLine;

?>

After reading around, I finally figured out the backslash and at least that produced some results, but the results are either way to much of the page (all I want is simple text) or nothing at all. The only information I'm trying to get, if you look at the webpage I'm trying to get information from, is the wind direction. I want to fetch more info, but I'm just trying to get this done for now.

Any idea where I am going wrong? I'm very new and I don't have a clue.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=41004

ANything?

[planetsim]

Please in future use [php][/php] tags makes reading the code easier. Also get into the habit of using <?php instead of <?, <? is closely related to XML declaration and when using XML with PHP, PHP will get confused.

I dont have a chance to modify the script however it doesnt seem the substr is going to work as if you check the strpos etc they are not set as the string cannot be found.

[dalecosp]

Awful hack:

<?php

$string="Wind Direction (WDIR)";
$data=file_get_contents("http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=41004");
$foo=explode($string, $data);
$bar=explode("</TD></TR>", $foo[1]);

echo "$string". strip_tags($bar[0]);

?>

😃

[brainlag]

Originally posted by planetsim
Please in future use [php][/php] tags makes reading the code easier. Also get into the habit of using <?php instead of <?, <? is closely related to XML declaration and when using XML with PHP, PHP will get confused.

Absolutely! Sorry, I didn't know about the php tags 🙁

I was wondering how some people got the colored code.

I tried dalecosp's code, but it produced the same result. I've been reading the PHP manual and I must say, it's a very confusing document, but I'll get there.

Thanks for the assistance and the heads-up.

EDIT: The code DOES work, I had uploaded the wrong code - duh.

Thank you!!

[brainlag]

Originally posted by dalecosp
Awful hack:

<?php

$string="Wind Direction (WDIR)";
$data=file_get_contents("http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=41004");
$foo=explode($string, $data);
$bar=explode("</TD></TR>", $foo[1]);

echo "$string". strip_tags($bar[0]);

?>

😃 [/B]

Awful to you, awesome to me 😃

I managed to change it around a little and produced fantastic results!

I am wondering though, is there a way to only get the data that is between the strings?

This prints: "Wind Direction (WDIR) SW (230 deg true )"

Ideally, what I would like is it to only print the 1st variable and not any of the other information eg only print "SW". I managed to get it to not print "( 230 deg true )", but is there a way to also make it not print "Wind Direction (WDIR)"

I know the variables change, i just used real examples to make it easier to understand, which likley made it more difficult.

[dalecosp]

Originally posted by brainlag
Awful to you, awesome to me 😃

Well, yes, it works. But you've got to understand why it is awful. Using explode() turns everything into an array. You could write a whole script this way, but it wouldn't scale well because you're using a good bit of wasted memory. If I'd done it with string functions it would have been, umm, more elegant, I guess.

I managed to change it around a little and produced fantastic results!

I am wondering though, is there a way to only get the data that is between the strings?

This prints: "Wind Direction (WDIR) SW (230 deg true )"

Ideally, what I would like is it to only print the 1st variable and not any of the other information eg only print "SW". I managed to get it to not print "( 230 deg true )", but is there a way to also make it not print "Wind Direction (WDIR)"

Sure. Omit the variable $string from the echo() statement 😉

[LordShryku]

Originally posted by dalecosp
If I'd done it with string functions it would have been, umm, more elegant, I guess.

Well, I don't know about elegant, but here's a string function method...

<?php
$start  = 'Wind Direction (WDIR):';
$end    = '</TD></TR>';
$data   = file_get_contents('http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=41004');

if(($pos = strpos($data, $start)) !== false) {
   $data = substr($data, $pos);
   if(($pos = strpos($data, $end)) !== false) {
      echo strip_tags(substr($data, 0, $pos)); # with string
      echo strip_tags(str_replace($start, '', substr($data, 0, $pos))); # without
   }
   else
      echo 'Cound not find '.$end;
}
else
   echo 'Could not find '.$start;
?>

[brainlag]

It's working like a charm 😃

<?php
$start  = 'Wind Direction (WDIR):';
$end    = ' ( ';
$data   = file_get_contents('http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=41004');

if(($pos = strpos($data, $start)) !== false) {
   $data = substr($data, $pos);
   if(($pos = strpos($data, $end)) !== false) {
      #echo strip_tags(substr($data, 0, $pos)); # with string
      echo strip_tags(str_replace($start, '', substr($data, 0, $pos))); # without
   }
   else
      echo 'Cound not find '.$end;
}
else
   echo 'Could not find '.$start;
?> 

To get rid of the "( 999 deg true )", I changed the $end to eliminate that part of the data and I commented out (#) to get rid of the string info

I'm sure I'm going to keep playing around with this script.

Thank you so very much 😃

[dalecosp]

Oh, BTW, brainlag, thanks for that site. I spent about an hour last night reading buoy data from all over the Eastern Seaboard. 😃

But seriously, it's neat. My son and I got to discuss the depth of the oceans... 🙂