Having Problems With Regex

jadedwest

Here is my current code

<?php
$fid = '472746862';
define ("profile_url","http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=" );
$full_file_path = profile_url.$fid;
$handle = fopen($full_file_path,"r");
	if (!$handle){
    	echo "<p>Sorry Myspace Is Slow Try Again.\n";
    	$arr = 0; }
	else {
	$timeout = 300;
	ini_set('max_execution_time','120');
	set_time_limit(120);
	ini_set('default_socket_timeout','120');
	while($contents = fread($handle,'1024'))
	{ $hold .= $contents; }
preg_match('#<title>\n\s*([^\s]+).+?\n<\/title>#i', $hold, $match);
$namer = $match[1];
		fclose($handle);
		ini_restore('max_execution_time');
		ini_restore('default_socket_timeout');
		echo $namer;
	}?>

What I'm trying to do is get just the screenname, from a persons myspace in their title tags. I got some previous help on here, which did get my preg_match working. but for some reason, it isnt working on the live site. Any help?

nrg_alpha

I believe I was the one that helped you out the last time. I looked at the url in question.. the title is this:

<title>
iTRENT $H1REDGUNZ$PVT~REGULATORS (EMk UPp) | MySpace.com
</title>

I am assuming you simply want iTRENT? If so, then your pattern could be:

preg_match('#<title>\s*([^\s]+).+?</title>#si', $hold, $match);
// $match[1] = iTRENT

I am looking at your pattern (from the previous thread) and noticed you made some modifications. After <title> you added \n, which means in this case, there must be a newline right after <title> (but odds are it will be a \r (carriage return) followed by \n.. Understand that \s is any whitespace character (so stuff like \r, \n \t, literal space and such) are included within \s.

I also noticed you added \n after .+? This is not necessary once we add the s modifier after the closing delimiter (the delimiters in this case are #......#). By default, that dot in .+? matches any single character other than a newline.. by adding the s modifier, the . will now match \n.

I would recommend you have a look at the following resources to help you better understand regex:

http://www.regular-expressions.info/
http://weblogtoolscollection.com/regex/regex.php
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Regular-Expressions-Jeffrey-Friedl/dp/0596528124/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239475391&sr=8-1

jadedwest

Thanks again, I did try it the way you first supplied.
But that did not work. That simple 's'. Fixed it!
And I will be reading up on regex. I did just a little, on the first links you have me.

nrg_alpha

Yeah, the modifiers modify the behavor of certain things in the pattern.

Also, if you don't plan on making any use of the rest of the title, we could simplify things as such:

preg_match('#<title>\s*([^\s]+)#i', $hold, $match);