php preg_match_all, regex, extract specific value

Question

I'm trying to extract the users who ask questions on a classified ad website( http://trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Cars/Toyota/Hiace/auction-300294634.htm ) . For some reasons the pattern which I'm using is not working always so I would appreciate if you will help me with a perfect regex Here is my current code

/get memberid of the question asker
   $pattern = "//m";
   preg_match_all($pattern, $htmlContent, $member_match);

   $no_a = count($member_match[1];);            

   $inc = 0;

  echo "number of askers is $no_a";

  //make loop to get all the members
     while($inc ";
//get member user match based on the member_id
      $pattern2 = "/(.*)/";
     preg_match_all($pattern2, $htmlContent, $member_user_match);
      $bid_user_q = $member_user_match[1][0];
//store the askers
    mysql_query("INSERT INTO askers (id, item_number, bid_user_q, bid_member_id_q, sub_cat)
                             VALUES('', '$item_number', '$bid_user_q', '$bid_member_id_q', '$sub_cat')");
echo "INSERT INTO askers (id, item_number, bid_user_q, bid_member_id_q)
                             VALUES('', '$item_number', '$bid_user_q', '$bid_member_id_q', '$sub_cat')
";
mysql_error();
     $inc++; 

     }

The code doesn't seem to be displayed properly due the html tags from pattern so you can see it here http://pastebin.com/iPxizy5X

Answer 1

I doubt it is "perfect", but this one worked for me:

/<small>\s*<a href=\"\/Members\/Listings\.aspx\?member=(\d+)\">\s*<b>(.*?)<\/b>/

If you use:

$pattern = "/<small>\s*<a href=\"\/Members\/Listings\.aspx\?member=(\d+)\">\s*<b>(.*?)<\/b>/";
preg_match_all($pattern, $htmlContent, $member_match, PREG_SET_ORDER);

$member_match[0][1] = member id $member_match[0][2] = member nick $member_match[1][1] = member id $member_match[1][2] = member nick