Question 232595 in PHP Question posted in
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Php – Why do I not get a match using preg_match

I’m trying to extract the values Navn, Telefon, E-postadresse and Adresse from a text file. The structure in the text file comes from a converted pdf file, thus the blank lines between the lines with text. I’m using php preg_match_all to extract the values. The loop only extracts the first value which is the Navn value. I don’t get a hit on the rest. Can anyone point me in the right direction on this?
Here is the text file content:

    Kontaktperson:

    Navn: Johan Wathne

    Telefon: 99566530

    99566530

    E-postadresse: johancqöhwheno

My PHP code looks like this where the variable $fileContent contains the text above:

if (preg_match('/Kontaktperson:s*(.*?)nn/ms', $fileContent, $matches)) {
    $kontaktpersonSection = trim($matches[1]);

    // Extract Tiltakshaver fields
    if (preg_match_all('/(Navn|Telefon|E-postadresse|Adresse):s*([^n]+)s*(?:nn|$)/', $kontaktpersonSection, $kontaktMatches, PREG_SET_ORDER)) {
        $kontaktpersonInfo = "Kontaktpersonn";
        $currentkontakt = "";
        foreach ($kontaktMatches as $kontaktMatch) {
            if ($kontaktMatch[1] === "Navn") {
                $currentkontakt = "Navn";
                $kontaktValue = $kontaktMatch[2];
                $kontaktpersonInfo .= "$currentkontakt: $kontaktValuen";
            } elseif ($kontaktMatch[1] === "Telefon") {
                $currentkontakt = "Telefon";
                $kontaktValue = explode("n", $kontaktMatch[2])[0];
                $kontaktpersonInfo .= "$currentkontakt: $kontaktValuen";
            } elseif ($kontaktMatch[1] === "E-postadresse") {
                $currentkontakt = "E-postadresse";
                $kontaktValue = $kontaktMatch[2];
                $kontaktpersonInfo .= "$currentkontakt: $kontaktValuen";
            } elseif ($kontaktMatch[1] === "Adresse") {
                $currentkontakt = "Adresse";
                $kontaktValue = $kontaktMatch[2];
                $kontaktpersonInfo .= "$currentkontakt: $kontaktValuen";
            }
        }
        $extractedInfo .= $kontaktpersonInfo;
    }
}
Tags:

2

Answers


  1. 0

    As I mentioned in a comment, your first regular expression isn’t
    capturing all what you want, leading to missing fields below.

    I would change your regular expression to this:

    /
# Opening of contact person:
Kontaktperson:
s*   # Ignore spaces
(.*?) # Capture all the fields.
# It should end with one of these:
(?: # Non-capturing group
  $ # End of file
  | # or
  n{3} # 3 new lines
  | # or
  n(?=Kontaktperson:) # A new line followed by Kontaktperson:
)
/gsx

    See it in action with the help: https://regex101.com/r/YJMYhJ/1

    I don’t know what helps you find the end of the contact person section
    but I assume it could be:

    • The end of the file : $ (don’t use the m flag if not $ matches
      the end of a line)

    • At least 3 new lines (as you already had 2 lines between fields).

    • A new line followed by a new opening contact person section. Here I
      use a positive lookahead to avoid "eating" the Kontaktperson: text
      so that we can match the next occurences.

    I used the x flag so that you can put comments in your pattern.

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  2. 0

    You don’t need to use a regex if your input is well structured.

    You can use

    $blob = explode("n", $fileContent);

    to break $fileContent into an array, then use strpos() and substr() to extract everything to the right of the colon for the appropriate lines.

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