[RESOLVED] A "foreach" loop with NO existing variable?

Maryanne

On a website I'm learning to scrape, I type in part numbers. The website yields a best price and a worst price. I created the following regex to scrape the data when my inputted part numbers yield valid prices:

preg_match_all("/BEST.?(?<best>\d{0,3}.\d{1,2}).?,.?WORST.?(?<worst>\d{0,3}.\d{1,2})/",$string,$matches);

Then, I can happily loop through the matched values like this:

foreach($matches as $var=>$part_number) {
${$part_number} = array (
'bestprice'=>$matches['best'],
'worstprice'=>$matches['worst']
);
}

However, when I input an invalid part number, the website's response changes so much that nothing gets preg_matched and my foreach loop fails. I wish that when I input an invalid part number, "0.00" would get assigned to the array keys.

Here is "pseudo-code" to illustrate what I'm wanting:

foreach($matches as $var=>$part_number) {
if(my_preg_match_routine works) {
${$part_number} = array (
'bestprice'=>$matches['best'],
'worstprice'=>$matches['worst']
);
} else {
${$part_number} = array (
'bestprice'=>'0.00',
'worstprice'=>'0.00'
);
}
}

I hope my question makes sense. :-)

benanamen

Ah, a new regex question.....

If we may, lets back up a bit. How exactly are you getting the data?

Weedpacket

foreach($matches as $var=>$part_number) {
if(my_preg_match_routine works) {

You want to do that the other way around, because you can't do the loop if there is nothing to loop on.

But still, what benanamen said, here and in the other thread. The formatting of this string looks like something from the 1990s (I'd say 70s but formats for punch cards were more concise).

Maryanne

Oh god... ROTF -- having PHP problems and reading these answers is actually BETTER than not having any PHP problems at all "the formatting looks like something from the 1990's" hahahaha -- you caught me! THATS when I learned PHP! Actually, more correctly stated: "That's when I learned PHP, enough to really screw things up" hahahah

Okay I'll try my best to answer your questions WITHOUT giving away the website I'm trying to scrape..... ;-)

The data, when the data is valid, looks like this:
$string = 'BEST 25.65, MEDIUM 4.75, WORST 20.5, BEST 4, MEDIUM 8.9, WORST 160.31, BEST 15.65, MEDIUM 5.33, WORST 160.31, FINISHED';

And my preg_match_all works fine, because it finds those numeric digits.

However, the data, when SOME results are NOT returned, looks like this:
$string = 'BEST:NULL:MEDIUM:NULL:WORST:NULL:BEST 4, MEDIUM 8.9, WORST 160.31, BEST 15.65, MEDIUM 5.33, WORST 160.31, FINISHED';

That first set of "Best:NULL...etc" causes my WHOLE preg_match_all to fail.

So I'm somehow trying to put an "if(!EMPTY)" line of code in there so the preg_match_all will simply return "0.00" for the first part of the returned data which has those "nulls" in it.

e.g. array(
[0] best=>0.00,
medium=>0.00,
worst=>0.00
[1] best=>4
medium=>8.9
worst etc., etc.

Leaving my code as it is now just causes my whole regex to fail and I get nothing out of the scrape.

Note: I leared a long time ago when posting questions on forums to NEVER give the exact code and the exact script, because then it's like asking the experts (NogDog, Weedpacket, et al) to code for you for free....

So I'm trying to ask actual "teaching/learning" questions..... like the "give a man a fish, eat for a day, teach a man to fish, etc.,) so I'm always careful to phrase my questions so I can learn how to do stuff on my own 🙂

benanamen

[ATTACH]5475[/ATTACH]

Note: I leared a long time ago when posting questions on forums to NEVER give the exact code and the exact script, because then it's like asking the experts (NogDog, Weedpacket, et al) to code for you for free....

You learned wrong. We need to know what your working with. You Keep posting about your attempted solution which is highly likely the wrong one.

You STILL have not answered HOW you are getting the data. You don't have to say from what site.

carousel-carrousel-merry-go-round-ride-3d-model-animated-max-obj-fbx-c4d-lwo-lw-lws-ma-mb.jpg

Weedpacket

Maryanne wrote:
Note: I leared a long time ago when posting questions on forums to NEVER give the exact code and the exact script, because then it's like asking the experts (NogDog, Weedpacket, et al) to code for you for free....

No - if you have the code you're not needing someone to write it for you.
If you just dump all the code and say "what's wrong?" then that won't work because that's asking someone else to do all your debugging for you (a bunch of debugging tips is in the [thread=10240608]Debugging 101 thread[/thread].

The reason we're asking this

benanamen wrote:
You STILL have not answered HOW you are getting the data. You don't have to say from what site.

is because you don't really have a line [font=monospace]$string = 'BEST:NULL:MEDIUM:NULL:WORST:NULL:BEST 4, MEDIUM 8.9, WORST 160.31, BEST 15.65, MEDIUM 5.33, WORST 160.31, FINISHED';[/font] in your code. You're doing something else to make it and the real solution to your problem may well lie there.

If you're scraping this off a web page, then (not ignoring AUPs and copyright) there may have been structure to its content that you could have used if you hadn't thrown it away (if you're having to scrape a web page to get it then either (a) the site may provide the data in a more machine-readable form already, or (b) they don't want you scraping it to begin with).

Maryanne

Sorry, bye.

benanamen

The OP's refusal to answer basic questions and wanting to hide the site being scraped from leads me to believe OP is up to something Illegal, in which case, none of us should be trying to help.