regex help

[uglyeyes]

Hi, I need to strip out text from a big file and my condition is: I need to strip out text from below <div class="a">apple</div> <p>  </p> <p>red delicious</p> <div class="b">banana</div> <p>  </p> <p>riped banana</p> <div class="c">chives</div> <p>  </p> <p>fresh green chives</p> to below 'apple', 'red delicious' 'banana', 'riped banana' 'chives', 'fresh green chives' so that i can enter each of them to database. I would really appreciate if you could please provide me a regex that could do this. thanks for your help!!! please note the content of the text is a concatination of multiple html pages.

[Luc Pattyn]

repost[^], and no PRE tags once again ==> no help X|

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]

---

I only read code that is properly formatted, adding PRE tags is the easiest way to obtain that.
[The QA section does it automatically now, I hope we soon get it on regular forums as well]

---

[vivasaayi]

The string you presented is a valid XML (root element is missing). If performance is not an issue, first add a root element and then you can use XmlDocument or XmlReader to extract the information you needed.

[uglyeyes]

no only the text i have provided you is valid. the content of the entire csv files has text like ----1---- my contents.. ----2---- my content2.. ... ... so could you please help how to extract the data i want? i have this regex that seem to work to get text between div tag

?<=\<div class=""middlead""\>).*?(?=\</div\>

but i need to get description of apple too. i tried to use below code

string fName = @"data.txt";//path to text file
StreamReader testTxt = new StreamReader(fName);
string allRead = testTxt.ReadToEnd();//Reads the whole text file to the end
testTxt.Close(); //Closes the text file after it is fully read.

        //Regex rx = new Regex(@"(?<=\\<div class=""middlead""\\>).\*?(?=\\</div\\>)", RegexOptions.Singleline);
        Regex rx1 = new Regex(@"(?<=\\<p\\>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\\</p\\>).\*?(?=\\</p\\>)", RegexOptions.Singleline);

            

        //MatchCollection matches = rx.Matches(allRead);
        MatchCollection matches1 = rx1.Matches(allRead);

        StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(@"realdata.txt");
        int count = 0;
        foreach (Match match in matches1)
        {
            sw.WriteLine(count.ToString());
            sw.WriteLine(match.ToString());

            foreach (Match match1 in matches1)
            {
                sw.WriteLine(match1.ToString());
            }
            count++;

        }
        sw.Close();


      
        
    }

but some how regex rx1 is not only giving text that i want but its doing greedy matching and try to match everything that has

could you please help as to how can i extract the description of those products.

[realJSOP]

Once again, html IS xml. Just use Linq-To-XML to parse it - using regex is a WASTE OF TIME. It's easy - really. All you have to do is man-up and do some frakking research. It's just a few lines of code.

.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001

[uglyeyes]

please note the descript content doesnt have ID so i cant really use dom. any suggestions as to have to get text inside

with no id?

[basantakumar]

Hi, Please use below Regex Pattern to get your result. .*?>([a-zA-Z0-9].*?)< Which will return the collection of apple red delicious banana riped banana chives fresh green chives Please let me know if you have any doubt.

[uglyeyes]

Hi thanks but the text i provided was just an example real text looks something like below and i need a regex for this one below <p>   </p> <p>red delicious.</p> <div class="central"><p>   </p> <FORM action="product.asp" method="post" > <INPUT type="hidden" name="ss" value="3"> <INPUT type="hidden" name="xx" value="xx"> <INPUT type="hidden" name="yy" value="yy"> <input type="image" src="./main/apple.png" value="Click here" /> </form><p>   </p> <p>   </p> <p>riped pear.</p> <div class="central"><p>   </p> <FORM action="product.asp" method="post" > <INPUT type="hidden" name="ss" value="3"> <INPUT type="hidden" name="xx" value="xx"> <INPUT type="hidden" name="yy" value="yy"> <input type="image" src="./main/pear.png" value="Click here" /> </form><p>   </p> this one is not working for me as its getting more text than i need <pre> (?<=\s\s\<p\>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\</p\>\n\t\t\s\s\<p\>).*?(?=\\</p\>\n\t\t\s\s\<div class=""central""\> </pre>

modified on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 6:14 PM

[uglyeyes]

not sure why my below regex fails in visual studio editor (?<=\<p\>   \</p\>\n\t+:b+).*(\n\t+:b+\<div class="central"\>) please note \t+ and :b+ are added because there is exactly 2 tab spaces and 2 white spaces in between the matching text. if I only use <p\>   \</p\>\n\t+:b+ it highlights the preceeding text of the matching text. not sure why by select between group is not working in visual studio. I am running out of ideas please help???

[uglyeyes]

I tested using regexbuddy for text "apple" with my regex (?<=a).*?(?=e) returns "ppl" now i want to get text in between using below regex (?<=\<p\>   \</p\>).*?(?=\<div class="central"\>) <p>   </p> <p>red delicious.</p> <div class="central"><p>   </p> <FORM action="x.asp" method="post" > <INPUT type="hidden" name="oradvertiser" value="3"> <INPUT type="hidden" name="xx" value="test"> <INPUT type="hidden" name="xy" value="test"> <input type="image" src="./main/apple.png" value="Click here" onmouseout="this.style.border='5px solid silver';" /> </form><p>   </p> <p>   </p> <p>riped pear.</p> <div class="central"><p>   </p> <FORM action="x.asp" method="post" > <INPUT type="hidden" name="or" value="3"> <INPUT type="hidden" name="xx" value="test"> <INPUT type="hidden" name="xy" value="test"> <input type="image" src="./main/pear.png" value="Click here" onmouseout="this.style.border='5px solid silver';" /> </form><p>   </p> <p>dummy text</p> but its not giving me "red delicious" and "riped pear" could you please help?

[uglyeyes]

this works <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>\s+<p>(?<content>.*?)</p>\s+<div class="central">

[Ravi Sant]

good :thumbsup:

♫ 99 little bugs in the code, 99 bugs in the code We fix a bug, compile it again 101 little bugs in the code ♫

[ahmed_elshiwy]

try to use labelname.refrsh() after the line u changed text property of the lable