PHP DOM and XPATH - Abu Ashraf Masnun

After checking out beautifulsoup in Python, I became very curious to know what we have in PHP for accessing the DOM nodes of a html document. After exploring a while, I found out the PHP DOM and XPATH.

Here’s a little example:

masnun.html – The HTML file

<html>
<head>
<title>
DOM Test
</title>
<body>
<font size="3">maSnun <a href="https://masnun.com">masnun.com</a></font>
</body>
</html>

<html>

<head>

<title>

DOM Test

</title>

<body>

<font size="3">maSnun <a href="https://masnun.com">masnun.com</a></font>

</body>

</html>

Now we use PHP to access the document:

#!/usr/bin/php

<?php
$dom = new DOMDocument; // construct a DOMDocument element
$dom->loadHTML(file_get_contents("masnun.html")); // load the contents of the html file
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom); // build a new DOMXPath element with the loaded DOMDocument

// define the search pattern now
// here we search for every <a> tag
// inside <font> tags which have a
// attribute, size = 3
// the <font> tags would be under
// the <body> tag

// the pattern is quite easy to understand
// and I find it quite identical to the linux
// filesystem structure

$pattern = "/html/body/font[@size=3]/a";


$res = $xpath->evaluate($pattern); // use the evaluate method to get a DOMElement object

//Now, lets play with the objects
// Please see the DOMElement part of PHP Manual
// to get the details on the methods I have used here

for($i=0;$i < $res->length; $i++) { echo $res->item($i)->getAttribute("href"); }

?>

#!/usr/bin/php

<?php

$dom = new DOMDocument; // construct a DOMDocument element

$dom->loadHTML(file_get_contents("masnun.html")); // load the contents of the html file

$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom); // build a new DOMXPath element with the loaded DOMDocument

// define the search pattern now

// here we search for every <a> tag

// inside <font> tags which have a

// attribute, size = 3

// the <font> tags would be under

// the <body> tag

// the pattern is quite easy to understand

// and I find it quite identical to the linux

// filesystem structure

$pattern = "/html/body/font[@size=3]/a";

$res = $xpath->evaluate($pattern); // use the evaluate method to get a DOMElement object

//Now, lets play with the objects

// Please see the DOMElement part of PHP Manual

// to get the details on the methods I have used here

for($i=0;$i < $res->length; $i++) { echo $res->item($i)->getAttribute("href"); }

That’s it, pretty simple and easy ! 😀

3 replies on “PHP DOM and XPATH”

Unfortunately in Russia, with visual kulturoybolshie problem.

I am in Web-design newbie, take orders for the development of sites can not yet.

But I often appear to customers who want to make a site.

Where and how to find a decent Web-designer in Russia?

????????, ???????, ???????. ???????????? ???????

Such an enjoyable read, and fantastic comments

How much money is needed to live without doing work and earn money without effort?

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