preg_match? how to read within the td tags

I have a table in html which I need to convert to a database table for MySQL (I use HeidiSQL).
SO there are a few td tags and then a tr tag indicating a new record. How would I be able to insert them in the db table? DO I use preg_match? How would it be written.

	preg_match_all('|id="(.*)">|U', $contents_of_page, $idout, PREG_SET_ORDER); 
	preg_match_all("|<[^>]+>(.*)</[^>]+>|U", $contents_of_page, $out, PREG_SET_ORDER);

PHP:

 

Post your HTML table.

 

Here it is:

<tbody><tr>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">gn</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">Genesis</td>
<td></td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>

<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">2</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">gn</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">Genesis</td>

<td></td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">2</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">2</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>

Code (markup):

 

Here is an example, I'm still learning regex which is why I gave it a shot

<?php

$contents =<<<PAGE
<tbody><tr>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">gn</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">Genesis</td>
<td></td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>

<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">2</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">gn</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">Genesis</td>

<td></td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">2</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">2</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
PAGE;

$va = preg_match_all('/<td(.*) *>(.*)<\/td>/i', $contents, $idout); 


echo sizeof($idout[0]);

echo $idout[0][21];

PHP:

Do note that you have to take care of empty tds (just use empty() )

Hope this helps, test with it etc etc.

 

Thanks.
I would like to understand what this means:

/<td(.*) *>(.*)<\/td>/i

PHP:

 

. = any character
* = allows any number of the same thing, but optional
() are alternation class where you can set rules and subrules and so on

\ = escapes the data

/i = tells the engine that we are not looking for case sensitive matches *meaning i stands for insensitive*

 

Ok and / ? What is that?

 

The delimiters.

Each regular expression has to go between these. (It can be pretty much anything, ~, /, {, !, @, etc...)

Take a look at this video: http://www.phpvideotutorials.com/regex/

 

i was going to post that video its got to be the best for learners

 

I tested this. It's reading the attribute of the td tag. I need it to read the innerHTML.

 

innerHTML as in reading the insides of <td> tags?

I think you have to do a var_dump($contents);

It does read the attributes, well use this, I just realized I added a class where I shouldn't

<?php

$contents =<<<PAGE
<tbody><tr>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">gn</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">Genesis</td>
<td></td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>

<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">2</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">gn</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">Genesis</td>

<td></td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">1</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">2</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="right">2</td>
<td dir="ltr" align="left">And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
PAGE;

$va = preg_match_all('/<td .*>(.*)<\/td>/i', $contents, $idout); 


echo sizeof($idout[0]);

var_dump($idout);

PHP:

This should give you td insides without the attributes. Do test with it further.