#Extract HTML Block I quick handy Perl subroutine I wrote a while ago to extract contents of HTML blocks identified by opening tags:

<tag>BLOCK BODY or BLOCK CONTENTS</tag>

If there're multiple instances of the inside the HTML, only the first instance will be treated.

##USAGE## my ($block, $html_processed) = extractHtmlBlock ($html, $opening_tag_html, $inner, $debug);

##ARGUMENTS##

1. $html - contains original HTML to be processed
2. $opening_tag_html - contains opening tag of a block inside $html
3. $inner - a flag of 1 or 0.
4. $debug - a flag of 1 or 0.

##RETURNING VALUES## $inner == 1

• $block - contains contents of the block identified by $opening_tag_html
• $html_processed - contains $html with the body of the block removed

$inner == 0

• $block - contains contents of the block identified by $opening_tag_html, along with the opening and closing tags
• $html_processed - contains $html with the body, and opening/closing tags of the block removed

##EXAMPLE A##

$html0 = '
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<div class="wrapper">
 <div class="one">
    <span class="one1">BLOCK 1</span>
 </div>
 <div class="one">
    <span class="one2">BLOCK 2</span>
 </div>
 <div class="one">BLOCK 3</div>
 </div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
';
my ($html, $source) = extractHtmlBlock ($html0, '<span class="one1">', 1, 0);

yields

html=[BLOCK 1]
source=[
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<div class="wrapper">
 <div class="one">
    <span class="one1"></span>
 </div>
 <div class="one">
    <span class="one2">BLOCK 2</span>
 </div>
 <div class="one">BLOCK 3</div>
 </div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
]

##EXAMPLE B##

$html0 = '
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<div class="wrapper">
 <div class="one">
    <span class="one1">BLOCK 1</span>
 </div>
 <div class="one">
    <span class="one2">BLOCK 2</span>
 </div>
 <div class="one">BLOCK 3</div>
 </div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
';
my ($html, $source) = extractHtmlBlock ($html0, '<span class="one1">', 0, 0);

yields

html=[<span class="one1">BLOCK 1</span>]
source=[
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<div class="wrapper">
 <div class="one">

 </div>
 <div class="one">
    <span class="one2">BLOCK 2</span>
 </div>
 <div class="one">BLOCK 3</div>
 </div>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
]