Parsing a complicated HTML table with PHP - php

Question

I successfully parsed a dynamic table with the following PHP code:
$docH = new DOMDocument();
$docH->loadHTMLFile($url);
//get everything inside the body element:
$bodyH = $docH->getElementsByTagName('body')->item(0);
foreach ($bodyH->childNodes as $childNode) {
echo $docH->saveHTML($childNode);
}
Parsed HTML Table:
<table>
<tr>
<td>5CG</td>
<td>aass</td>
<td>sxs</td>
<td>sx</td>
<td>EK</td>
<td></td>
<td>72</td>
</tr>
<td></td>
<td>samplxs</td>
<td>xs</td>
<td></td>
<td>xss</td>
<td>fkxsx aus</td>
<td>s</td>
</tr>
<td></td>
<td>5AH.</td>
<td>ds</td>
<td>d</td>
<td>sdf</td>
<td>sdfsdf aus</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6CG</td>
<td>3.</td>
<td>sfd</td>
<td></td>
<td>scs</td>
<td>das aus</td>
<td>a</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7DG</td>
<td>6.</td>
<td>s</td>
<td>s</td>
<td>sD</td>
<td>sdsa.</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<td></td>
<td>samplxs</td>
<td>xs</td>
<td></td>
<td>xss</td>
<td>fkxsx aus</td>
<td>s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7DG, 7CG, 7CR</td>
<td>6.</td>
<td>NsdR</td>
<td>s</td>
<td>SP</td>
<td>fasdlt aus</td>
<td>s</td>
</tr>
<td></td>
<td>samplxs</td>
<td>xs</td>
<td></td>
<td>xss</td>
<td>fkxsx aus</td>
<td>s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9BR</td>
<td>6.</td>
<td>FEI</td>
<td>sa</td>
<td>DE</td>
<td>fasdad aus</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9AR, 9BR, 9CR</td>
<td>62.</td>
<td>BEH</td>
<td></td>
<td>sd</td>
<td>fasda aus</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td>6.</td>
<td>MLR</td>
<td></td>
<td>FdR</td>
<td>fsdfaus</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>E10C</td>
<td>6.</td>
<td>sdf</td>
<td>d</td>
<td>d</td>
<td>fsdfs aus</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
</table>
But my goal is to just show the content of the table the user wants by asking for just the <tr> elements in which the first <td> of the first <tr> includes some text until there is another <tr> which first <td> has a different content.
For example: If the user types "9BR" into an input field, I just want him to see:
9BR
6.
FEI
sa
DE
fasdad aus
9AR, 9BR, 9CR
62.
BEH
sd
fasda aus
6.
MLR
FdR
fsdfaus
If he types in 5CG:
<tr>
<td>5CG</td>
<td>aass</td>
<td>sxs</td>
<td>sx</td>
<td>EK</td>
<td></td>
<td>72</td>
</tr>
<td></td>
<td>samplxs</td>
<td>xs</td>
<td></td>
<td>xss</td>
<td>fkxsx aus</td>
<td>s</td>
</tr>
Or if 6CG just:
<tr>
<td>6CG </td>
<td>3. </td>
<td>sfd </td>
<td> </td>
<td>scs </td>
<td>das aus</td>
<td>a </td>
</tr>

Answer 1

Using XPath, something like this should do the trick
http://de3.php.net/manual/en/class.domxpath.php
$xpath = new DomXpath($docH);
$trs = $xpath->query('//tr[td[1][contains(text(), "BR9")]]');
find all tr which first td contains text "anything"
as for the following ´tr´s with empty first td
this might not be the most elegant form to query this, but would work:
$query = '
//tr[td[1][contains(text(), "anything")]]
|
//tr[td[1][contains(text(), "anything")]]
/following-sibling::tr[td[1][not(text())] and preceding-sibling::tr[1][td[1][not(text()) or contains(text(), "anything")]]]
';
find all tr which first td contains text "anything"
also find all tr which first td is empty and whose preceding siblings (trs) first td
is also empty or contains text "anything"
example: http://3v4l.org/q6eDu