php regex optional field -

i seem have confused myself preg_match regex i'm doing, fresh eyes , appreciated.

my current regex follows:

"#table.*?stream status:.*?<b>stream @ (.*?) kbps (.*?) of (.*?) listeners</b>.*?listener peak.*?<b>(.*?)</b>.*?stream name.*?<b>(.*?)</b>.*?content type.*?<b>(.*?)</b>.*?stream genre.*?<b>(.*?)</b>.*?stream url.*?<b>(.*?)</b>.*?current song.*?<b>(.*?)</b>.*?</table#si" 

but columns not given, best solution mark field optional?

the table looks like:

http://pastebin.com/wbrxhjdp

any advice nice ;-)

you shouldn't use regular expressions parse html.

here's quick script create array filled keys , values:

<?php $str = <<< endl <table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0" align="center">     <tr>         <td width="120" valign="top">server status: </td>         <td><b>server , public</b></td>     </tr>     <tr>         <td valign="top">stream status: </td>         <td><b>stream @ 256 kbps 0 of 250 listeners</b></td>     </tr>     <tr>         <td valign="top">listener peak: </td>         <td><b>1</b></td>     </tr>     <tr>         <td valign="top">average listen time: </td>         <td><b>1 hours 50 minutes 8 seconds</b></td>     </tr>     <tr>         <td valign="top">stream name: </td>         <td><b><a target="_blank" href="http://www.shoutcast.com/internet-radio/xyz">xyz</a></b></td>     </tr>     <tr>         <td valign="top">content type: </td>         <td><b>audio/aacp</b></td>     </tr>     <tr>         <td valign="top">stream genre: </td>         <td><b>jazz</b></td>     </tr>     <tr>         <td valign="top">stream url: </td>         <td><b><a target="_blank" href="http://tmp/">http://tmp/</a></b></td>     </tr>     <tr>         <td valign="top">current song: </td>         <td><b><a href="currentsong?sid=1">test</a></b></td>     </tr>     <tr>         <td valign="top">next song: </td>         <td><b><a href="nextsong?sid=1">test2</a></b></td>     </tr> </table>   endl;  $html = new simplexmlelement($str); $buffer = array();  foreach($html->tr $row) {   $label = trim(rtrim(trim($row->td[0]), ":"));   $value = trim(strip_tags($row->td[1]->asxml()));   $buffer[$label] = $value; }  echo "<pre>"; var_dump($buffer); echo "</pre>"; 

result:

array(10) {   ["server status"]=>   string(33) "server , public"   ["stream status"]=>   string(48) "stream @ 256 kbps 0 of 250 listeners"   ["listener peak"]=>   string(1) "1"   ["average listen time"]=>   string(28) "1 hours 50 minutes 8 seconds"   ["stream name"]=>   string(3) "xyz"   ["content type"]=>   string(10) "audio/aacp"   ["stream genre"]=>   string(4) "jazz"   ["stream url"]=>   string(11) "http://tmp/"   ["current song"]=>   string(4) "test"   ["next song"]=>   string(5) "test2" }