[Resolved] Need help pulling out specific text from a string

peppino

here is my code:
$contents = file_get_contents("http://adds.aviationweather.gov/metars/index.php?submit=1&station_ids=KSMO&chk_metars=on&hoursStr=2&std_trans=standard");

basically what i want to do is only display a certain portion of the data in the string.

if you go to THIS url
the only portion of that page that i want is just the lines starting with KSMO

how to i grab only that portion of the string??

TheDefender

Before, we can help you out, can you elaborate on how you are planning to retrieve the actual information? It can make a significant difference in how you would go about it... The basic idea, though, is to probable compare each line using the substr function...

For example, this assumes you have each line fed into an array called lines and are looping through that array...

for($i = 0; $i < count($lines); $i++) {
    if(substr($lines[$i], 0, 4) == "KSMO") {
      // do something with the line
    }
}

peppino

i am grabbing the html text from a url using the code below

$contents = file_get_contents("http://adds.aviationweather.gov/metars/index.php?submit=1&station_ids=KSMO&chk_metars=on&hoursStr=2&std_trans=standard");

so contents is now a string containing all the html code from the url specified.

so now with all that text/code as i string, how do i just print out only like lines that start with KSMO?

bradgrafelman

You could also find someone that knows Perl-style regular expression, and use [man]preg_match_all/man. Just search for everything between <FONT FACE="Monospace,Courier"> and </FONT>.

I'm no guru on regular expression, so you'll have to ask someone else, but it's definitely a solution :p

Installer

$lines = explode("\n", $contents);
foreach ($lines as $line) {
    $line = trim(strip_tags($line));
    if (strpos($line, 'KSMO') === 0) {
        echo $line . '<br />';
    }
}