Parse a log file with regex, PHP

Question

I'm absolutely terrible at regex; can anyone help me solve the expression I need in order to separate two values I need from a log file?

Log file example.

1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {178.76.234.41}
1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {78.105.26.0}
1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {24.165.198.12}
1/28/2013 8:43:23 PM Added          {178.76.234.41}
1/28/2013 8:43:23 PM Added          {69.246.227.43}

With my current code I am able to separate the IP address, however I now need both the state (added/removed) and the IP address. Here is my current code.

preg_match_all("/.*{(.*)}.*/", $a, $b);

What do I need to replace "/. {(. )}.*/" with in order to grab both the state and the IP address to store into the array?

Answer 1

You don't actually need a regular expression to match this. You can split it on whitespace using preg_split() and \\s+ as your delimiter, and then strip off the braces {} from the IP address with a simple function like trim() .

$output = array();

// While reading line by line...
$parts = preg_split('/\s+/', $line);
$output[] = array(
  'state' => $parts[3],
  'ip' => trim($parts[4], '{}')
);

http://codepad.viper-7.com/fD8kgQ

Answer 2

If those are the only two words you need to include, have you tried something like this?

preg_match_all("~(Removed|Added)\s+{(.*)}~i", $a, $b);

So in total:

$a = '1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {178.76.234.41}
      1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {78.105.26.0}
      1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {24.165.198.12}
      1/28/2013 8:43:23 PM Added          {178.76.234.41}
      1/28/2013 8:43:23 PM Added          {69.246.227.43}';
preg_match_all("~(Removed|Added)\s+{(.*)}~i", $a, $b);
print_r($b);

And resulting in this:

Array ( [0] => Array ( [0] => Removed {178.76.234.41} [1] => Removed {78.105.26.0} [2] => Removed {24.165.198.12} [3] => Added {178.76.234.41} [4] => Added {69.246.227.43} ) [1] => Array ( [0] => Removed [1] => Removed [2] => Removed [3] => Added [4] => Added ) [2] => Array ( [0] => 178.76.234.41 [1] => 78.105.26.0 [2] => 24.165.198.12 [3] => 178.76.234.41 [4] => 69.246.227.43 ) )

Answer 3

I think this works for you;

$s = '1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {178.76.234.41}
      1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {78.105.26.0}
      1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {24.165.198.12}
      1/28/2013 8:43:23 PM Added          {178.76.234.41}
      1/28/2013 8:43:23 PM Added          {69.246.227.43}';
preg_match_all('~(?P<TIME>.*PM)\s+(?P<STATE>Added|Removed)\s+{(?P<IP>.*)}~i', $s, $m, PREG_SET_ORDER);
print_r($m);
// or 
foreach ($m as $log) {
    printf("Time: %s, State: %s, Ip: %s\n", $log['TIME'], $log['STATE'], $log['IP']);
    // Time: 1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM, State: Removed, Ip: 178.76.234.41 ...
}

Out;

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => 1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {178.76.234.41}
            [TIME] => 1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM
            [1] => 1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM
            [STATE] => Removed
            [2] => Removed
            [IP] => 178.76.234.41
            [3] => 178.76.234.41
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => 1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM Removed        {78.105.26.0}
            [TIME] => 1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM
            [1] => 1/28/2013 8:43:22 PM
            [STATE] => Removed
            [2] => Removed
            [IP] => 78.105.26.0
            [3] => 78.105.26.0
        )
    ...