Parsing problem

[foolproof]

Hello,

I'm having difficulties parsing/reformatting some lines from an HTML file. The file contains entries between markers as this:

<!-- ###LISTING### -->
<p>2008-03-17 &gt; People &gt;<br /><a href="/1970/people/smith.html">Peter Smith</a></p><hr />
<p>2008-03-15 &gt; Employes &gt;<br /><a href="/1970/people/fleming.html">John Fleming</a></p>
<p>2008-03-15 &gt; Workers &gt;<br /><a href="/1970/people/hamilton.html">Nill Hamilton</a></p><hr />
<!-- ###LISTING### -->

I need to parse/reformat the lines as follows:

<dl>
<dt>2008-03-17</dt><dd><a href="/1970/people/smith.html">Peter Smith</a></dd>
<dt>2008-03-15</dt><dd><a href="/1970/people/fleming.html">John Fleming</a></dd>
<dt>2008-03-15</dt><dd><a href="/1970/people/hamilton.html">Nill Hamilton</a></dd>
</dl>

So far the following code returns all lines between markers:

Note: Marker = <!-- ###LISTING### -->

function getHTMLFile () {
$gotit = preg_match('/' . $this->config['Marker'] . '([\d\w\s\S]*)' . $this->config['Marker'] . '/',$theFile,$matches);
return $matches[1];

Any help will be appreciated.
Thank you

[ucffool]

I'd probably just do a str_replace() where you have an array for find and for replace, such as:

$find = array('<p>', '<br />', '</p>');
$replace = array('<dt>', '', '</dd>');
str_replace($find, $replace, $string);

Then for the items leftover, do a preg_replace() to parse the remainder.

[foolproof]

ucffool wrote:

$find = array('<p>', '<br />', '</p>');
$replace = array('<dt>', '', '</dd>');
str_replace($find, $replace, $string);

Yes, good idea. I'll try this:

$find = array('<p>', '<br />', '</p>');
$replace = array('<dt>', '</dt><dd>', '</dd>');
str_replace($find, $replace, $string);

Then as suggested will parse the remainder getting rid of "&gt; string &gt;" and "<hr />"

Thanks ucffool.

[ucffool]

welcome. 🙂

[foolproof]

Done! Worked just fine. Thanks.