Simple HTML DOM - traversing html - php

Question

I'm using the Simple HTML DOM Parser - http://simplehtmldom.sourceforge.net/manual.htm
I'm trying to scrape some data from a scoreboard page. The below example shows me pulling the HTML of the "Akron Rushing" table.
Inside $tr->find('td', 0), the first column, there is a hyperlink. How can I extract this hyperlink? Using $tr->find('td', 0')->find('a') does not seem to work.
Also: I can write conditions for each table (passing, rushing, receiving, etc), but is there a more efficient way to do this? I'm open to ideas on this one.
include('simple_html_dom.php');
$html = file_get_html('http://espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=322432006');
$teamA['rushing'] = $html->find('table.mod-data',5);
foreach ($teamA as $type=>$data) {
switch ($type) {
# Rushing Table
case "rushing":
foreach ($data->find('tr') as $tr) {
echo $tr->find('td', 0); // First TD column (Player Name)
echo $tr->find('td', 1); // Second TD Column (Carries)
echo $tr->find('td', 2); // Third TD Column (Yards)
echo $tr->find('td', 3); // Fourth TD Column (AVG)
echo $tr->find('td', 4); // Fifth TD Column (TDs)
echo $tr->find('td', 5); // Sixth TD Column (LGs)
echo "<hr />";
}
}
}

Answer 1

In your case, the find('tr') returns 10 elments instead of the 7 rows expected only.
Also, not all the names has links associated with them, trying to retrieve a link when it doesnt exist may return an error.
Therefore, here's a modified working version of your code:
$url = 'http://espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=322432006';
$html = file_get_html('http://espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=322432006');
$teamA['rushing'] = $html->find('table.mod-data',5);
foreach ($teamA as $type=>$data) {
switch ($type) {
# Rushing Table
case "rushing":
echo count($data->find('tr')) . " \$tr found !<br />";
foreach ($data->find('tr') as $key => $tr) {
$td = $tr->find('td');
if (isset($td[0])) {
echo "<br />";
echo $td[0]->plaintext . " | "; // First TD column (Player Name)
// If anchor exists
if($anchor = $td[0]->find('a', 0))
echo $anchor->href; // href
echo " | ";
echo $td[1]->plaintext . " | "; // Second TD Column (Carries)
echo $td[2]->plaintext . " | "; // Third TD Column (Yards)
echo $td[3]->plaintext . " | "; // Fourth TD Column (AVG)
echo $td[4]->plaintext . " | "; // Fifth TD Column (TDs)
echo $td[5]->plaintext; // Sixth TD Column (LGs)
echo "<hr />";
}
}
}
}
As you can see, an attribute can be reched using this format $tag->attributeName. In your case, attributeName is href
Notes:
It would be a good idea to handle find's errors, knowing that it returns "False" when nothing is found
$td = $tr->find('td');
// Find suceeded
if ($td) {
// code here
}
else
echo "Find() failed in XXXXX";
PHP Simple HTML DOM Parser has known memory leaks issues with php5, so don't forget to free up memory when DOM objects are no more used:
$html = file_get_html(...);
// do something...
$html->clear();
unset($html);
Source: http://simplehtmldom.sourceforge.net/manual_faq.htm#memory_leak

Answer 2

According to the documentation you should be able to chain selectors for nested elements.
This is the example they give:
// Find first <li> in first <ul>
$e = $html->find('ul', 0)->find('li', 0);
The only difference I can see is that they include the index in the second find. Try added that in and seeing if it works for you.