preg_match expression challenge

[rtcary]

Like many, when I am faced with the creation of patterns in preg_match or regx, I go into a state of confusion. Those of you that are the experts come up with patterns that make sense once they have been created; it is creating it. Well, enough crying! Here is my challenge:

I have tags in a HTML file that have this structure

$tag1 = '<!--[NewsletterDate-start]-->';
$tag2 = '<!--[NewsletterDate-end]-->';

$tag1 = '<!--[Thought-start]-->';
$tag2 = '<!--[Thought-end]-->';

I would like to create an array of all occurrences that have "-start" with just the text between "[..]". The structure of the tags has not been set in stone at this time, so maybe a change would make the pattern easier.

Can a pattern be created that would put into the $match array "NewsletterDate-start" and "Thought-start" or "NewsletterDate" and "Thought"?

Over whelmed...

Todd

[bradgrafelman]

Do you also want to verify that there is a matching -end tag, e.g. only show "xxx" if there is both a "xxx-start" and "xxx-end" tag (but not "yyy" if there is only "yyy-start")? That will add a bit of complexity to the pattern; if not, here's an example:

/(?<=<!--\[)[^\]]+(?=-start\]-->)/

You could use that with [man]preg_match_all/man to get an array like:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => NewsletterDate
            [1] => Thought
        )

)

[rtcary]

WOW! As always, you make it look so simple! If by chance you live in the SF Bay Area, I owe you a beer!

Checking to see if an End Tag exists would be a nice extra, and yes, I had planned on using preg_match_all()...at least a form that returns an array of matches. In reading the docs, I thought that preg_match() with the $match option returned all, but I need to re-read the docs.

With appreciation...

Todd