I have read the many comments on this page that complain that using a dom parser is unnecessary overhead. Well, it may be more expensive than a mere regex call, but the OP has stated that there is no control over the order of the attributes in the img tags. This fact leads to unnecessary regex pattern convolution. Beyond that, using a dom parser provides the additional benefits of readability, maintainability, and dom-awareness (regex is not dom-aware).
I love regex and I answer lots of regex questions, but when dealing with valid HTML there is seldom a good reason to regex over a parser.
In the demonstration below, see how easy and clean DOMDocument handles img tag attributes in any order with a mixture of quoting (and no quoting at all). Also notice that tags without a targeted attribute are not disruptive at all -- an empty string is provided as a value.
Code: (Demo)
$test = <<
This is irrelevant text.
HTML;
libxml_use_internal_errors(true); // silences/forgives complaints from the parser (remove to see what is generated)
$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadHTML($test);
foreach ($dom->getElementsByTagName('img') as $i => $img) {
echo "IMG#{$i}:\n";
echo "\tsrc = " , $img->getAttribute('src') , "\n";
echo "\ttitle = " , $img->getAttribute('title') , "\n";
echo "\talt = " , $img->getAttribute('alt') , "\n";
echo "---\n";
}
Output:
IMG#0:
src = /image/fluffybunny.jpg
title = Harvey the bunny
alt = a cute little fluffy bunny
---
IMG#1:
src = /image/pricklycactus.jpg
title = Roger the cactus
alt = a big green prickly cactus
---
IMG#2:
src = /image/noisycockatoo.jpg
title = Polly the cockatoo
alt = an annoying white cockatoo
---
IMG#3:
src = somethingelse
title = something
alt =
---
Using this technique in professional code will leave you with a clean script, fewer hiccups to contend with, and fewer colleagues that wish you worked somewhere else.
