CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpregex
Andrew Min
Andrew Min

Reputation: 942

Regular expression works on some servers and not others

I'm having trouble debugging a regular expression. First, the code (this is the complete file... sorry for the lack of line breaks -- see http://pastebin.com/h5CeiY5F for a pastebin):

<?php
$matches = null;
$returnValue = preg_match('#" FirstDownType="[A-Z][0-9]+"/><Play PlayDescription="Penalty[^<]+/>#', '<Play DownDistanceYardline="3-1-GB 7" EarnedFirstDown="False" PlayDescription="(3:40) 71-C.Brown reported in as eligible. 28-M.Ingram left guard to GB 7 for no gain (94-J.Wynn; 95-H.Green)."/><Play DownDistanceYardline="4-1-GB 7" EarnedFirstDown="False" PlayDescription="(3:10) 9-D.Brees pass incomplete short left to 23-P.Thomas."/><Play Header="Green Bay Packers at 3:02"/><Play DownDistanceYardline="1-10-GB 7" EarnedFirstDown="False" PlayDescription="(3:02) 44-J.Starks right tackle to GB 11 for 4 yards (94-C.Jordan)."/><Play DownDistanceYardline="2-6-GB 11" EarnedFirstDown="False" PlayDescription="(2:26) 12-A.Rodgers pass deep right to 85-G.Jennings pushed ob at GB 33 for 22 yards (33-J.Greer)." FirstDownType="P17"/><Play PlayDescription="Penalty on NO-33-J.Greer, Defensive Pass Interference, declined."/><Play DownDistanceYardline="1-10-GB 33" EarnedFirstDown="True" PlayDescription="(2:01) (Shotgun) 12-A.Rodgers pass short left to 85-G.Jennings to GB 47 for 14 yards (21-P.Robinson)." FirstDownType="P18"/><Play DownDistanceYardline="1-10-GB 47" EarnedFirstDown="True" PlayDescription="(1:22) 12-A.Rodgers pass short right to 87-J.Nelson pushed ob at NO 44 for 9 yards (27-M.Jenkins)."/><Play DownDistanceYardline="2-1-NO 44" EarnedFirstDown="False" PlayDescription="(:47) 44-J.Starks right tackle to NO 42 for 2 yards (51-J.Vilma; 94-C.Jordan)." FirstDownType="R19"/><Play DownDistanceYardline="1-10-NO 42" EarnedFirstDown="True" PlayDescription="(:07) 25-R.Grant right tackle to NO 40 for 2 yards (51-J.Vilma, 58-S.Shanle)."/><QuarterSummary Team="New Orleans Saints" Score="27" TimeOfPossession="10:47" FirstDownsRushing="3" FirstDownsPassing="5" FirstDownsPenalty="1" FirstDownsTotal="9" ThirdDownEfficiency="1/3" FourthDownEfficiency="0/1"/><QuarterSummary Team="Green Bay Packers" Score="35" TimeOfPossession="4:13" FirstDownsRushing="1" FirstDownsPassing="2" FirstDownsPenalty="0" FirstDownsTotal="3" ThirdDownEfficiency="0/1" FourthDownEfficiency="0/0"/>', $matches);
print_r($matches);

When I run this on several sandboxes (like http://sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/ or functions-online.com/preg_match.html ), it returns:

Array ( [0] => " FirstDownType="P17"/><Play PlayDescription="Penalty on NO-33-J.Greer, Defensive Pass Interference, declined."/> )

That's the expected output I'm looking for.

However, when I run it on my server (and I've tested it on two different servers), I get:

Array ( [0] => " FirstDownType="P17"/> )

All I can think of is that preg_match changed between PHP 5.3.10 (the version on the sandbox) and PHP 5.3.6 (our version), or that our Ubuntu version is misconfigured?

I'd really appreciate any help. Thanks!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 124

Answers (1)

gen_Eric
gen_Eric

Reputation: 227290

Do you need to match this using a regex? How about using an XML parser instead?

Try using SimpleXML to get the node(s) you need.

$sXML = new SimpleXMLElement('<xml>'.$xml.'</xml>');

Then you can use XPath to find the element(s) you need.

$play = $sXML->xpath('//Play[starts-with(@PlayDescription, "Penalty")]/preceding-sibling::Play[@FirstDownType]');

This will select the Play element preceding the Play element that has a PlayDescription starting with "Penalty".

DEMO: http://codepad.viper-7.com/ECQKcB

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions