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phpstringurlexplodestrip

PHP Strip string of first url and report results

Russel Peter video: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw">www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw</a> russel peters video blah blah. Turtles: <a href="http://turtles.com">turtles.com</a>

I have a string that contains text and and tags with enclosed urls like the above example.

I want to strip the out ONLY the first tag found 

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw">www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw</a>

and from that, strip out the url inside the href="".

But... i also want to be able store the text around the tag that is pulled out.

I'm looking for something like this as the end result after all the stripping:

$originalstring = "Russel Peter video: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw">www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw</a> russel peters video blah blah. Turtles: <a href="http://turtles.com">turtles.com</a>";


$preurl = "Russel Peter video: ";

$atag = "<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw">www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw</a>";

$url = "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw";

$afterurl = " russel peters video blah blah. Turtles: <a href="http://turtles.com">turtles.com</a>";

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP

NOTE: i apologize if I've used the wrong terms.

Solution 
  • $orgstring = 'Russel Peter video: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw">www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw</a> russel peters video blah blah. Turtles: <a href="http://turtles.com">turtles.com</a>';
$s = explode(":",$orgstring,2);
$preurl = $s[0];
$href= explode('href="',$s[1]);
$url=preg_replace("/\">.*/","",$href[1]);
$atag = preg_replace("/\">.*/","",$s[1]);
$after=explode("</a>",$orgstring,2);
$afterurl=$after[1];
print "\$preurl: $preurl\n";
print "\$url: $url\n";
print "\$atag: $atag\n";
print "\$afterurl: $afterurl\n";

    output

    $ php test.php
$preurl: Russel Peter video
$url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw
$atag:  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bP9tRhJRTw
$afterurl:  russel peters video blah blah. Turtles: <a href="http://turtles.com">turtles.com</a>