Help using preg_match to get number of pages (of <a href="javascript: GotoPage(4);" .

Hi all i am trying to use preg_match to get number of pages from a html that has this format :

of <a href="javascript: GotoPage(4);" class="pagingLink">4</a>

in this case i want to grab the number 4 but it never works. Could any one tell me what i am doing wrong ?Hope some one help me .Thanks

PHP Code:

---


global $curl;

// Retrieve number of pages page.
    echo 'Checking friends list... ';
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, './test.html');
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, 0);
    $result = curl_exec($curl);
    $headers = curl_getinfo($curl);
    
    // Find out how many pages there are. 
    if (preg_match('~of <a href="(.+?)" class="pagingLink">([0-9]+)</a>~', $result, $matches))
    {
        $pages = $matches[2];
            echo ' Number of pages: $pages ';
        unset($matches);
        
    } 


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Html content :

HTML Code:

---

of <a href="javascript: GotoPage(4);" class="pagingLink">4</a>

---

That works fine here. Are you sure cURL is getting the data?

thanks for your reply. I used print $result; and yes it loaded that remote page. Try to add this url (http://friends.myspace.com/index.cfm...ID==140771218)instead test.html and you can see the full html .Hope i get help getting the number of pages on html of that page.Thanks

HTML Code:

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<span class="pager_container"><div class="friends_bot" id="nav_bottom"><span class="nav_left"><span class="pgerTitle">Listing 1-40 of 8,702</span><a class="highlight">1</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(2);" class="pagingLink">2</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(3);" class="pagingLink">3</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(4);" class="pagingLink">4</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(5);" class="pagingLink">5</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(6);" class="pagingLink">&raquo;</a> of <a href="javascript: GotoPage(218);" class="pagingLink">218</a> </span><span class="nav_right"><a class="prevPagingLink disabledPaging">prev</a>  | <a href="javascript: GotoPage(2);" class="nextPagingLink">next</a> </span></div></span>

---

Where on earth did 'of' come from?

Thanks for your reply. If you look at your html code that you posted you will find 'of' just before <a hreft= ... almost at the end of the code. But any ways if you look at that page in your browser you see some thing like 1 2 3 4 5 &#187; of 218 prev | next . I wanted to get that 218 but for some reason my doesn't it get the corect value both in firbox and ID :-(
http://friends.myspace.com/index.cfm...ndID=140771218

PHP Code:

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$result = 'blahblahblah <span class="pager_container"><div class="friends_bot" id="nav_bottom"><span class="nav_left"><span class="pgerTitle">Listing 1-40 of 8,702</span><a class="highlight">1</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(2);" class="pagingLink">2</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(3);" class="pagingLink">3</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(4);" class="pagingLink">4</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(5);" class="pagingLink">5</a> <a href="javascript: GotoPage(6);" class="pagingLink">&raquo;</a> of <a href="javascript: GotoPage(218);" class="pagingLink">218</a> </span><span class="nav_right"><a class="prevPagingLink disabledPaging">prev</a>  | <a href="javascript: GotoPage(2);" class="nextPagingLink">next</a> </span></div></span>';
if (preg_match('%of <a href="(.+?)" class="pagingLink">([0-9]+)</a>%', $result, $matches)) {
    $pages = $matches[2];
    echo 'There are '.$pages.' pages.';
} 


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Outputs:

Code:

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There are 218 pages.

---

That works fine for me...

I also tried it with a heredoc of the full page and it worked fine too.

EDIT: I couldn't test cURL but this works too:

PHP Code:

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<?php
$result= file_get_contents("http://friends.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewfriends2&friendID=140771218");
if (preg_match('%of <a href="(.+?)" class="pagingLink">([0-9]+)</a>%', $result, $matches)) {
    $pages = $matches[2];
    echo 'There are '.$pages.' pages.';
}
?>

---

RudiVisser many thanks for helping me. I tried your first code and it worked for the give result sample data. I tried your second code as it is and number of pages never didn't output!! Infact it scaped the the if statment since even the echo "there are didn't get printed!!


i even used print $result; after $result = curl_exec($curl); and i saw the that page get loaded!! so i concluded that result has the right html!



I am runing this in Apache/1.3.33 (Win32) with PHP version :5.0.4 in local server. Do you think some thing is wrong with version of apache or php ? Hope you help me fix this problem.Thanks

I highly doubt it, but you are using very old software.

When you say pages never outputted, did you try adding an else { }, remember the page could have just been taking a while to load.