I have to get any text between:
Final-Recipient: RFC822; !HERE! Action
I need !HERE! from this example. There could be any string.
I tried something like:
$Pattern = '/Final-Recipient: RFC822; (.*) Action/'; But it doesn't work.
upd
Here is the string I'm trying to parse: http://dpaste.com/187638/
Since you said "any string" which may contain spaces, the closest approximate would be
$Pattern = '/Final-Recipient: RFC822; (.*?) Action/s'; # ^ ^ # lazy match instead of greedy match ----' | # allow . to match newline -----' Of course it won't match "Final-Recipient: RFC822; Action Action".
Your pattern works fine for me:
$i = 'This is a MIME-encapsulated message --o3ONXoEH01blah3:35:33 +0400 (MSD) Final-Recipient: RFC822; !HERE! Action: failed Status: 4.4.7 Lblahru> From: * @*.ru'; $pattern = '/Final-Recipient: RFC822; (.*) Action/'; $matches = Array(); preg_match($pattern, $i, $matches); print_r($matches); Output:
Array ( [0] => Final-Recipient: RFC822; !HERE! Action [1] => !HERE! ) Note also that your pattern will fail if the "any text" contains new lines. Use the DOTALL modifier /.../s to allow the dot to also match new lines. Also note that if the text " Action" appears elsewhere in the message it will cause your regular expression to fail. Matching dot is dangerous. Try to find a more specific pattern if possible.
$Pattern = '/Final-Recipient:[^;]+[;|<|\s]+([^\s|^<|^>]+)/i'; The following expression turned out to be the best for my problems, because sometimes there are lines of the following kind:
Final-Recipient: LOCAL;<[email protected]> I am going to suggest a method that does not use them, which requires extra busywork.
<?php $message = 'This is a MIME-encapsulated message --o3ONXoEH016763.1272152184/zvm19.host.ru The original message was received at Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:35:33 +0400 (MSD) from roller@localhost ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- "Flucker" ----- Transcript of session follows ----- 451 grl.unibel.by: Name server timeout Message could not be delivered for 2 days Message will be deleted from queue --o3ONXoEH016763.1272152184/*.host.ru Content-Type: message/delivery-status Reporting-MTA: dns; zvm19.host.ru Arrival-Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:35:33 +0400 (MSD) Final-Recipient: RFC822; !HERE! Action: failed Status: 4.4.7 Last-Attempt-Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 03:36:24 +0400 (MSD) --o3ONXoEH016763.1272152184/zvm19.host.ru Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Return-Path: Received: (from *@localhost) by *.host.ru (8.13.8/Zenon/Postman) id o3MNZX5h059932; Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:35:33 +0400 (MSD) (envelope-from *@roller.ru) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:35:33 +0400 (MSD) Message-Id: <201004222335.o3MNZX5h059932@*.host.ru> From: * @*.ru'; $left_delimiter = 'Final-Recipient: RFC822; '; $right_delimiter = ' Action'; $left_delimiter_pos = strrpos($message, $left_delimiter); $right_delimiter_pos = strpos($message, $right_delimiter); $desired_message_fragment = ''; if ($left_delimiter_pos !== false && $right_delimiter_pos !== false) { $fragment_start = $left_delimiter_pos + strlen($left_delimiter); $fragment_length = $right_delimiter_pos - $fragment_start; $desired_message_fragment = substr( $message, $fragment_start, $fragment_length ); } var_dump($desired_message_fragment); a bit late....
but has been asked in terms of how to solve a problem that is not quite his requirements Op perhaps has joined multiple lines onto one line?(imho).
This might help others....
I'm assuming that op is trying to parse the Final-Recipient header field of a delivery status notification.
The spec for the Final-Recipient field can be seen here: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3464#page-15
If the problem is broken down, op can pull the final recipient field as a single field (Final recipient followed by a char/blank line on the next line.
e.g.
Original-recipient: rfc822;[email protected] Final-recipient: rfc822;[email protected] Action: failed Status: 5.1.1 (Remote SMTP server has rejected address) Final recipient is followed by the start of the next field, Action which has A on the next line. ie not followed by a space or blank line.
then all he has to do is split the line on ; and take the second part
ie
String[] twoparts = "Final-recipient: rfc822;[email protected]".split(";",2) // 2 here means (2-1) = 1 match String email = twoparts[1] 
