PHP return multiple matches same REGEX pattern

Question

I have the following HTML:

<tr valign="top">
        <td>Name:</td>
        <td>John Doe</td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
<tr valign="top">
        <td>Address:</td>
        <td>71 view st, Fitchburg, MA 01420</td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
<tr valign="top">
        <td>Phone:</td>
        <td>978-345-5391</td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
<tr>
        <td>Email:</td>
        <td>[email protected]</td>
</tr>

I want to capture the values of Name, Phone and Email within the same REGEX pattern, something like:

$pattern = "/Name:<\/td>\s*<td>(.*)<\/td>.*Address:<\/td>\s*<td>(.*)<\/td>.*card ([0-9].*)<\/td>/m";

If I try separately, like:

$pattern = "/Name:<\/td>\s*<td>(.*)<\/td>/m";
$pattern = "/Phone:<\/td>\s*<td>(.*)<\/td>/m";
$pattern = "/Email:<\/td>\s*<td>(.*)<\/td>/m";

is okay. Maybe I don't understand how REGEX works, isn't possible to have more matches in a single pattern?

Parsing html markup by means of a regular expression typically is not a good approach. It is very unreliable and complex. Take a look at a DOM parser instead. Those are the right tool for such task. — arkascha
– arkascha, Commented Nov 20, 2016 at 17:12
I know, I can't use DOM because my file doesn't have any full HTML tags, just TABLE and so on, so I can't access DOM. — bsteo
– bsteo, Commented Nov 20, 2016 at 17:15
That does not mean you cannot use a DOM parser! Simply embed that table definition into a minimalistic HTML framework. — arkascha
– arkascha, Commented Nov 20, 2016 at 17:16
1. You can do it with a Regex. You need an s flag at the end so that it will count newlines as white space. 2. Your regex does not match. 3. It is easier to use # instead of / as your regex delimiters since you have / in your haystack. — Tim
– Tim, Commented Nov 20, 2016 at 17:26
Why did people downvote the question? This was a straight forward question. — Tim
– Tim, Commented Nov 20, 2016 at 19:12

Tim · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-10 02:41:31Z

Example showing multiline regex. 1. Not best solution to problem but illustrates ability. 2. Not the best regex but the point is the s flag at the end.

<?php
$html = <<<EOL
<tr valign="top">
        <td>Name:</td>
        <td>John Doe</td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
<tr valign="top">
        <td>Address:</td>
        <td>71 view st, Fitchburg, MA 01420</td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
<tr valign="top">
        <td>Phone:</td>
        <td>978-345-5391</td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
<tr>
        <td>Email:</td>
        <td>[email protected]</td>
</tr>
EOL;

$pattern = "#Name:</td>.*<td>(.*?)</td>.*Address:</td>.*<td>(.*?)</td>.*Phone:</td>.*<td>(.*?)</td>.*Email:</td>.*<td>(.*?)</td>#s";

if(preg_match($pattern, $html, $matches)) {
    printf("Name: %s\n", $matches[1]);
    printf("Address: %s\n", $matches[2]);
    printf("Phone: %s\n", $matches[3]);
    printf("Email: %s\n", $matches[4]);
}


?>

Yields

Name: John Doe
Address: 71 view st, Fitchburg, MA 01420
Phone: 978-345-5391
Email: [email protected]

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