need help with using / as a character in simple php scraper script

Hi,

I am using a php scraper script to update links in a html , i need help using / in the search string

Code:

$data = file_get_contents('url here');
$regex = '/<div class="afisare3">(.+?)</div>/';
preg_match($regex,$data,$match);
$channelcode = $match[0];
cex_file_put_contents("./file.html",$upcode, $channelcode,$downcode);

What i am trying to do is get the code between the div class afisare . The problem is right now I use this line:
$regex = '/<div class="afisare3">(.+?)div>/';
This doesn't work when there is a new div tag in the code.
Because I don't know how to add / in the string without generating php errors as / is the escape character. How do I acheive this ?

 

Either change the delimiter - instead of using "/", use "~" since it is rarely used.

Or else just escape the forward slash by placing a backslash in front of it, eg: <\/div>

 

Two things:

1) As blueparukia said, use \/ (back slash-forward slash) to escape the forward slash. (You can't use a different character - <~div> won't end a div).

2) You're going to have to create what's called a state machine. Set a flag to 1 when you pass the beginning of the div. If you pass the beginning of another div, increment the flag. If you pass a </div>, decrement the flag. You're not out of the original div until the flag is 0. (There are more elegant ways to make a state machine, but that's simple and all you need.)

 

thanks for the replies, I got it working with it now .

Can you provide more info on how I can implement the 2. state machine thing you talk about. I barely know php and can modify code based on my c knowledge.

 

Just as I described it. Set an int to 0. When you find your div, inc (int++) the int. Every time you find a "<div" inc it again. Every time you find a "</div", dec (int--) it. When you reach 0, you've hit the "</div>" for your div's id. (You can replace the </div> with "", or you can back up your string pointer - it depends on what you're doing, whether you care that the last </div> is in your result, etc.)

The program is the same in any language, only the code is different.

 

I meant as a delimiter. eg. $regex = '~<div>Stuff</div>~';
Will allow you to write it without needing to escape the slash.