How to take content from json using regular expression (regex) in php

Question

I need to extract json which is existing inside some html tags. how to extract name(key) values from below json using regular expression

<div id="gwt_products_display_results" class="gwt_products_display_results">
                <span class="JSON" style="display: none;">
{
    "products": [
        {
            "targetURL": "/athena-mineral-fabric-by-the-yard/262682",
            "listIndex": "0",
            "minimumPrice": 20,
            "categoryOnSale": "false",
            "mfPartNumber": "FF010ATM",
            "hasAtLeastOneBuyableAndPublishedItem": "true",
            "attributes": [],
            "partNumber": "b_FF010ATM",
            "itemAsProduct": "true",
            "iapAttribute": "",
            "productDetailTargetURL": "/athena-mineral-fabric-by-the-yard/262682",
            "iapAttributeCode": "",
            "beanType": "bundle",
            "name": "Athena Mineral Fabric by the Yard",
            "maxListPrice": 0,
            "thumbNail": "null",
            "hasSaleSKUs": false,
            "productId": "262682",
            "currencyCode": "USD",
            "hasMoreColors": false,
            "xPriceLabel": "null",
            "minListPrice": 0,
            "maximumPrice": 20,
            "iapAttributeDisplayName": "",
            "shortDescription": "null",
            "listId": "SEARCHRESULTS",
            "categoryId": "null"
        },
        {
            "targetURL": "/athena-slate-fabric-by-the-yard/262683",
            "listIndex": "1",
            "minimumPrice": 20,
            "categoryOnSale": "false",
            "mfPartNumber": "FF010ATS",
            "hasAtLeastOneBuyableAndPublishedItem": "true",
            "attributes": [],
            "partNumber": "b_FF010ATS",
            "itemAsProduct": "true",
            "iapAttribute": "",
            "productDetailTargetURL": "/athena-slate-fabric-by-the-yard/262683",
            "iapAttributeCode": "",
            "beanType": "bundle",
            "name": "Athena Slate Fabric by the Yard",
            "maxListPrice": 0,
            "thumbNail": "null",
            "hasSaleSKUs": false,
            "productId": "262683",
            "currencyCode": "USD",
            "hasMoreColors": false,
            "xPriceLabel": "null",
            "minListPrice": 0,
            "maximumPrice": 20,
            "iapAttributeDisplayName": "",
            "shortDescription": "null",
            "listId": "SEARCHRESULTS",
            "categoryId": "null"
        },
        {
            "targetURL": "/typewriter-keys-giclee/261307",
            "listIndex": "2",
            "minimumPrice": 259,
            "categoryOnSale": "false",
            "mfPartNumber": "WD813",
            "hasAtLeastOneBuyableAndPublishedItem": "true",
            "attributes": [
                {
                    "S7 - Overlay 1": "blank"
                }
            ],
            "partNumber": "p_WD813",
            "itemAsProduct": "true",
            "iapAttribute": "",
            "productDetailTargetURL": "/typewriter-keys-giclee/261307",
            "iapAttributeCode": "",
            "beanType": "product",
            "name": "Typewriter Keys Giclee",
            "maxListPrice": 0,
            "thumbNail": "null",
            "hasSaleSKUs": false,
            "productId": "261307",
            "currencyCode": "USD",
            "hasMoreColors": false,
            "xPriceLabel": "null",
            "minListPrice": 0,
            "maximumPrice": 259,
            "iapAttributeDisplayName": "",
            "shortDescription": "null",
            "listId": "SEARCHRESULTS",
            "categoryId": "null"
        }
    ]
}
</span>
</div>

what I have tried so far is

<span class="JSON" style="display: none;">([\s\S]+?)<\/span>

Why for everything-in-the-world-that-might-be-considered-holy’s sake would you want to use regular expressions on a data structure like JSON? Parse it into an object/array, and access the values you want directly or by looping over it. — C3roe
– C3roe, Commented May 31, 2013 at 12:28
If you are planning to drop json_encode() and write your own full-fledge JSON parser you'll probably need much more than regular expressions because JSON allows indefinite nesting level of arbitrary elements. Are you looking for something to do this Summer? — Álvaro González
– Álvaro González, Commented May 31, 2013 at 12:30

qwerty · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-31 12:28:47Z

4

You can convert it to an array and then get the names using array_keys();

$array = json_decode($json);

$keys = array_keys($array['products']);

answered May 31, 2013 at 12:28

qwerty

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Jithin · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-03 05:10:10Z

1

Why, regular expression? As the other people here mentioned, you can use json_decode to parse it to an array and process it.

But if you insist on regular expression I would say /"(.+?)":/ will match ALL keys if your JSON have exact format as shown.

UPDATE

So you are getting it from a html string. Consider the variable is $html and as you insist on regular expression, parse the json using regex as follows and then decode. To parse the keys, use array_keys()

preg_match('/<span.*?class="JSON".*?>(.+?)<\/span>/s', $html, $matches);

$decoded_array = json_decode($matches[1], true);

print_r($decoded_array);

$keys = array_keys($decoded_array['products'][0]);

print_r($keys);

edited Jun 3, 2013 at 5:10

answered May 31, 2013 at 12:38

Jithin

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2 Comments

Sunith Saga Over a year ago

Acctually i am talking data from html structure so its difficult to use json_decode

Jithin Over a year ago

Then parse the json from html and then decode. Updated the answer.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 20:24:57Z

You can use DOMDocument and DOMXPath to find the span elements which contain the JSON, and then json_decode that. Here's a rough example to get you on your way: -

<?php
$html = '
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Example</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="gwt_products_display_results" class="gwt_products_display_results">
            <span class="JSON" style="display: none;">
            {
                "products": [
                    {
                        "targetURL": "/athena-mineral-fabric-by-the-yard/262682",
                        "listIndex": "0",
                        "minimumPrice": 20,
                        "categoryOnSale": "false",
                        "mfPartNumber": "FF010ATM",
                        "hasAtLeastOneBuyableAndPublishedItem": "true",
                        "attributes": [],
                        "partNumber": "b_FF010ATM",
                        "itemAsProduct": "true",
                        "iapAttribute": "",
                        "productDetailTargetURL": "/athena-mineral-fabric-by-the-yard/262682",
                        "iapAttributeCode": "",
                        "beanType": "bundle",
                        "name": "Athena Mineral Fabric by the Yard",
                        "maxListPrice": 0,
                        "thumbNail": "null",
                        "hasSaleSKUs": false,
                        "productId": "262682",
                        "currencyCode": "USD",
                        "hasMoreColors": false,
                        "xPriceLabel": "null",
                        "minListPrice": 0,
                        "maximumPrice": 20,
                        "iapAttributeDisplayName": "",
                        "shortDescription": "null",
                        "listId": "SEARCHRESULTS",
                        "categoryId": "null"
                    },
                    {
                        "targetURL": "/athena-slate-fabric-by-the-yard/262683",
                        "listIndex": "1",
                        "minimumPrice": 20,
                        "categoryOnSale": "false",
                        "mfPartNumber": "FF010ATS",
                        "hasAtLeastOneBuyableAndPublishedItem": "true",
                        "attributes": [],
                        "partNumber": "b_FF010ATS",
                        "itemAsProduct": "true",
                        "iapAttribute": "",
                        "productDetailTargetURL": "/athena-slate-fabric-by-the-yard/262683",
                        "iapAttributeCode": "",
                        "beanType": "bundle",
                        "name": "Athena Slate Fabric by the Yard",
                        "maxListPrice": 0,
                        "thumbNail": "null",
                        "hasSaleSKUs": false,
                        "productId": "262683",
                        "currencyCode": "USD",
                        "hasMoreColors": false,
                        "xPriceLabel": "null",
                        "minListPrice": 0,
                        "maximumPrice": 20,
                        "iapAttributeDisplayName": "",
                        "shortDescription": "null",
                        "listId": "SEARCHRESULTS",
                        "categoryId": "null"
                    }
                ]
            }
            </span>
        </div>
    </body>    
</html>
';

$document   = DOMDocument::loadHTML($html);
$xpath      = new DOMXPath($document);
$spans      = $xpath->query('//div/span[@class="JSON"]');

foreach ($spans as $span) {
    $catalog = json_decode($span->nodeValue);
    printf("We found %d products.\n", count($catalog->products));
    foreach ($catalog->products as $index => $product) {
        printf("Product #%d - %s.\n", ++$index, $product->name);
    }
}

/*
    We found 2 products.
    Product #1 - Athena Mineral Fabric by the Yard.
    Product #2 - Athena Slate Fabric by the Yard.
*/

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