[RESOLVED] Help with PHP REGEX

[o0110o]

Hello, I have this script:

<?php

function getLocation() {
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$geo = file_get_contents("http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip");
$results = urlencode($geo);
echo $results;
}

getLocation();

?>

Which returns:

Country%3A+CANADA+%28CA%29%0ACity%3A+ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL%0AIP%3A+142.162.13.207%0A

I would like for $results to contain only "ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL"; in other words the city name and the province/state for the visiting user.
Unfortunately my experience with PHP REGEX is little to none and I've tried hard to make this work before posting here but my attempts were unsuccessful 🙁

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 🙂

[halojoy]

There is function [man]urldecode[/man]

If we run your example through we get string more simple to work with.

<?php

$text = urldecode('Country%3A+CANADA+%28CA%29%0ACity%3A+ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL%0AIP%3A+142.162.13.207%0A');
echo $text;

?>

gives

Country: CANADA (CA) City: ST. JOHN'S, NL IP: 142.162.13.207

[laserlight]

o0110o wrote:

I would like for $results to contain only "ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL"; in other words the city name and the province/state for the visiting user.

I do not know the format of what you are reading, but my guess is that what you are looking for is always in between "City: " and " IP:". If so, obtaining the desired portion is easy:

if (preg_match('/City: (.*) IP:/', $geo, $matches))
{
    $results = urlencode($matches[1]);
    echo $results;
}
else
{
    // Handle invalid format error.
}

[o0110o]

halojoy;10942773 wrote:

There is function [man]urldecode[/man]

If we run your example through we get string more simple to work with.

<?php

$text = urldecode('Country%3A+CANADA+%28CA%29%0ACity%3A+ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL%0AIP%3A+142.162.13.207%0A');
echo $text;

?>

gives

Country: CANADA (CA) City: ST. JOHN'S, NL IP: 142.162.13.207

Thanks for the tip, but what I want to do is make the regex change after this line:

$geo = file_get_contents("http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip");

and before this line:

$results = urlencode($geo);

This way the modified data (ie. "City%2C+State") gets passed off into $results.
I need $results encoded because this script is going to be part of another script where $results get passed off as part of a URL parameter.

[johanafm]

So, place Laserlight's code BEFORE you urlencode your string.

[o0110o]

johanafm;10942804 wrote:

So, place Laserlight's code BEFORE you urlencode your string.

Thanks for your input everybody 🙂

I followed your directions, and I placed the new code accordingly:

<?php

function getLocation() {
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$geo = file_get_contents("http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip");
if (preg_match('/City: (.*) IP:/', $geo, $matches))
{
    $results = urlencode($matches[1]);
    echo $results;
}
else
{
    // Handle invalid format error.
} 
$results = urlencode($geo);
echo $results;
}

getLocation();

?>

However, the returned output is still this:

Country%3A+CANADA+%28CA%29%0ACity%3A+ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL%0AIP%3A+142.162.13.207%0A

[halojoy]

I would change the preg_match to this.
Hope it works now 🙂

<?php

// Country%3A+CANADA+%28CA%29%0ACity%3A+ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL%0AIP%3A+142.162.13.207%0A

function getLocation() {

$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$geo = file_get_contents("http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip");
if (preg_match('/City%3A+(.*)%0AIP%3A/', $geo, $matches)){
    $results1 = urlencode($matches[1]);
    echo $results1;
}else{
    // Handle invalid format error.
} 
$results2 = urlencode($geo);
echo $results2;

} // end function

getLocation();

?>

[o0110o]

halojoy;10942832 wrote:

I would change the preg_match to this.
Hope it works now 🙂

<?php

// Country%3A+CANADA+%28CA%29%0ACity%3A+ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL%0AIP%3A+142.162.13.207%0A

function getLocation() {

$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$geo = file_get_contents("http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip");
if (preg_match('/City%3A+(.*)%0AIP%3A/', $geo, $matches)){
    $results1 = urlencode($matches[1]);
    echo $results1;
}else{
    // Handle invalid format error.
} 
$results2 = urlencode($geo);
echo $results2;

} // end function

getLocation();

?>

This is weird, I still get:

Country%3A+CANADA+%28CA%29%0ACity%3A+ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL%0AIP%3A+142.162.13.207%0A 

If you want, you can check it out yourself here:

http://thefeedcast.net/knooph.com/x/locale.php

[johanafm]

halojoy;10942832 wrote:

I would change the preg_match to this.
Hope it works now 🙂

<?php
// Country%3A+CANADA+%28CA%29%0ACity%3A+ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL%0AIP%3A+142.162.13.207%0A

I wouldn't, since that string is what it looks like after the urlencode.

What I would do is check what you really have. That's the only chance to determine why it fails.

$geo = file_get_contents("http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip");
// Use the pre element to make sure the space is a space and not a new line for example.
echo '<pre>"' . $geo . '"</pre><br/>';
if (preg_match('/City: (.*) IP:/', $geo, $matches))

[halojoy]

I have got it working.
I have made some change to your function.

1. There is no echo inside function.
   The location is returned as a variable.
   And you can do whatever: echo or put result into database or use it.

2. You can submit an IP to the function.
   For example you take an IP from your database.
   If no IP is submitted, then it will use REMOTE_ADDR as IP.

Examples:
$location = getLocation();
echo $location; // of remote address is used

$location = getLocation('122.01.23.22');
echo $location; // displays 'Tokyo'

Sometimes location will be '(Unknown city)'
We could put in a test for this case.

Enjoy!

<?php

function getLocation($ip=false) {

if(!$ip){
	$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
}
$url = "http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip";
$geo = file_get_contents($url);
if( preg_match('/City: (.*)\nIP:/', $geo, $matches) ){
	$result = $matches[1];
}else{
	$result = 'getLocation failure';
}
return $result;

} // end function
///////////////////////////

$location = getLocation('122.01.23.22');
echo $location;        // Tokyo

exit();
?>

[o0110o]

johanafm;10942853 wrote:

I wouldn't, since that string is what it looks like after the urlencode.

What I would do is check what you really have. That's the only chance to determine why it fails.

$geo = file_get_contents("http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip");
// Use the pre element to make sure the space is a space and not a new line for example.
echo '<pre>"' . $geo . '"</pre><br/>';
if (preg_match('/City: (.*) IP:/', $geo, $matches))

You are right about the encoding being unnecessary in preg_match() 🙂

I ran the script using the <pre> tags you suggested, here is what was returned:

"Country: CANADA (CA)
City: ST. JOHN'S, NL
IP: 142.162.13.207
"


Country%3A+CANADA+%28CA%29%0ACity%3A+ST.+JOHN%27S%2C+NL%0AIP%3A+142.162.13.207%0A 

[johanafm]

And there's the reason. Laserlight's regexp assumed ordinary spaces between city name and "IP:". The solution would be to use \n (or possibly \r or \r\n), or simply replace the whitespaces in Laserlight's regexp with \s which matches any single whitespace.

[o0110o]

After some fiddling around based on all your kind suggestions, I have got this to work 🙂 , here is the code:

<?php

function getLocation($results=false) {

if(!$ip){
    $ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
}
$url = "http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip";
$geo = file_get_contents($url);
if( preg_match('/City: (.*)\nIP:/', $geo, $matches) ){
    $results = $matches[1];
}else{
    $results = 'getLocation failure';
}
return $results;

} 

$location = urlencode(getLocation('$results'));
echo $location;

exit();

?> 

Thank-you all so much!

[halojoy]

Maybe you like this bit better.
I make the urlencode on the result, just before return it.

The way you had done it, wasnt very proper coding.
It destroyed the IP submit feature.

This will work the way you want it.
And still be good code.

<?php

function getLocation($ip=false) {

if(!$ip){
    $ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
}
$url = "http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip";
$geo = file_get_contents($url);
if( preg_match('/City: (.*)\nIP:/', $geo, $matches) ){
    $results = $matches[1];
}else{
    $results = 'getLocation failure';
}
return urlencode($results); //URL Encode before return

} 


$location = getLocation();
echo $location;

exit();

?>

[o0110o]

halojoy;10942870 wrote:

Maybe you like this bit better.
I make the urlencode on the result, just before return it.

The way you had done it, wasnt very proper coding.
It destroyed the IP submit feature.

This will work the way you want it.
And still be good code.

<?php

function getLocation($ip=false) {

if(!$ip){
    $ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
}
$url = "http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip";
$geo = file_get_contents($url);
if( preg_match('/City: (.*)\nIP:/', $geo, $matches) ){
    $results = $matches[1];
}else{
    $results = 'getLocation failure';
}
return urlencode($results); //URL Encode before return

} 


$location = getLocation();
echo $location;

exit();

?>

So all I would need is a form to submit an IP to the script? Is that what your IP feature is for?

[laserlight]

o0110o wrote:

I followed your directions, and I placed the new code accordingly:

There is a lesson to be learnt here: if you had replaced my "Handle invalid format error" comment with code that actually handled or otherwise indicated the invalid format error, you would have detected early on that there was a mismatch between the format that I guessed was correct and the actual format 🙂

In the code that you eventually got to work, you still have a similiar problem: you just urlencode the result, without checking for success or failure. You should consider throwing an exception or returning false to indicate failure, and then make sure that you either eventually catch the exception if it is thrown, or that the caller checks for failure.

halojoy wrote:

I make the urlencode on the result, just before return it.

This might be fine in this case, but generally speaking it is a bad idea since it results in loss of generality for the function (even though this can be reversed with urldecode), considering that the function is named getLocation rather than say, getUrlEncodedLocation.

EDIT:

o0110o wrote:

So all I would need is a form to submit an IP to the script? Is that what your IP feature is for?

Actually, I thought that your use of $results as the parameter was a typographical error that halojoy fixed. It makes more sense to have $ip as the parameter as it makes the function more flexible: you can provide an IP address as an argument, or you can provide no arguments and thus just use $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'].

In this sense, you do not need a form to submit an IP address to the script, but you can make it such if you want.

[o0110o]

laserlight;10942876 wrote:

There is a lesson to be learnt here: if you had replaced my "Handle invalid format error" comment with code that actually handled or otherwise indicated the invalid format error, you would have detected early on that there was a mismatch between the format that I guessed was correct and the actual format 🙂

In the code that you eventually got to work, you still have a similiar problem: you just urlencode the result, without checking for success or failure. You should consider throwing an exception or returning false to indicate failure, and then make sure that you either eventually catch the exception if it is thrown, or that the caller checks for failure.

This might be fine in this case, but generally speaking it is a bad idea since it results in loss of generality for the function (even though this can be reversed with urldecode), considering that the function is named getLocation rather than say, getUrlEncodedLocation.

EDIT:

Actually, I thought that your use of $results as the parameter was a typographical error that halojoy fixed. It makes more sense to have $ip as the parameter as it makes the function more flexible: you can provide an IP address as an argument, or you can provide no arguments and thus just use $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'].

In this sense, you do not need a form to submit an IP address to the script, but you can make it such if you want.

Thank for your constructive input 🙂 I have learned much from the help provided to me by the kind folks @. I will try my best to help others as you all have helped me 🙂

[o0110o]

Here is an updated version:

<?php

function getLocation() {

if (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP']))
{
    $ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];
} elseif (!empty($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']))
{
    $ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
}
else
{
    $ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
}

$url = "http://api.hostip.info/get_html.php?ip=$ip";
$geo = file_get_contents($url);
if( preg_match('/City: (.*)\nIP:/', $geo, $matches) ){
    $results = $matches[1];
}else{
    $results = 'getLocation failure';
}
return urlencode($results);

} 

$location = getLocation('$results');
echo $location;

exit();

?> 

Anything missing?