Regular expression to replace table tag

Question

I would like to write a regular expression rule to replace everything in between and included the table tag.

For example:

<table class="table1"><tr><td></td></tr></table>

Everything above to be replaced in a string, including the table tag

Using preg_replace

Answer 1

See these two examples.

1.) Match innermost tables:

$pattern = '~<table(?>(?!</?table).)*</table>~is';

test at regex101

---

2.) Match table and if nested tables inside: Using a recursive pattern

$pattern = '~<table((?>(?!</?table).)*|(?R))+</table>~is';

test at regex101

---

So just use preg_replace to replace:

$str = preg_replace($pattern, "...", $str);

test at eval.in

---

For further explanation also see: SO Regex FAQ