Online PHP editor | output for PDoTe

<?php // 1. Identify the block of <a> elements $string = '<div><a href=%http://link1%><img></a><a href=%http://link2%><img></a><a href=%http://link3%><img></a></div>'; $re = '|<div>((<a((?!href)(?!<).)+?href=%([^%]+?)%((?!</a>).)+?</a>){3})</div>|'; $matches = array(); echo('result='.intval(preg_match($re, $string, $matches))."\n"); echo('$matches='); print_r($matches); /* // 2. Split it into individual <a> elements $re = '|(?<=</a>)(?=<a)|'; $pieces = preg_split($re, $matches[1]); echo('$pieces='); print_r($pieces); // 3. Analyze each <a> element, extract the interesting components $re = '|href=%([^%]*)%|'; foreach ($pieces as $a) { $matches = array(); if (preg_match($re, $a, $matches)) { echo($a.': '.$matches[1]."\n"); } } */ $re = '|<a((?!href)(?!<).)+?href=%([^%]+?)%((?!</a>).)+?</a>|' preg_match_all($re, $matches[1], $matches); print_r($matches);