HELP: How to ignore href tags ina html file

phpuser_2000

Hi,

I have a list of keyword words in a mysql . I use this keyword to higlight the matching word in the html file.
example : PHP become <a href ="some link"> php</a>

but if it sees and existing link <a href="some.link" alt="php"> php</>.
How do Ignore this href tags?

I do not know how to ignore the <a href>...</a> tags in the html/text file when the word is inside one already,

if someone can show a sample example /code woudl be a great help.

Thanks

sneakyimp

obviously when you highlight your text, you have a find and replace statement. that find-and-replace statement is going to have to be changed to a pattern-matching search. You'll need to use preg_replace or some other string replacement function which permits pattern matching.

This is not a trivial problem and, not being that good at pattern matching, I don't think I can come up with a pattern to help you.

Generally speaking, it would be a good idea if you posted some of your code when you ask a question like this--like the code that actually does the search-and-replace.

phpuser_2000

this is my function whihc currently highlights the matching keywords

function highlight($input, $keyword) {

    foreach( $keyword as $word ) {
    /// HIGHLIGHT KEYWORD
    $output = preg_replace(
      "/(>|^)([^<]+)(?=<|$)/esx",
      "'\\1' . str_replace('" . $word . "', '<B>" . $word . "</B>', '\\2')",
      $input
    );
    $input = $output;
    }

return $output;
}

Can someone show me how to IGNORE the href tags in the link <a href>...</a> tags