Regular Expression Help : The Official Microsoft ASP.NET Forums

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theoryTim.ne...

Member

53 Points

29 Posts

Regular Expression Help

Oct 01, 2010 11:30 PM|LINK

Hello all,

I am trying to get a certain section (including html and spaces) using reg ex. My regex I will provide worked, but now there are line breaks/spaces and my way breaks. My way is also kind of sloppy, and i'm sure there is a cleaner way to acheive this..

Example text I am working with (I wish to capture any data any html tags in the Disease Specific Outcomes (this seciton will always have this text)):

<ol style="list-style-type: disc;">
    <li>Disease Specific Outcomes:
    <ol style="list-style-type: decimal;">
        <li>text </li>
        <li>text 2</li>
        <li>text 3</li>
    </ol>
    </li>
</ol>
<ol style="list-style-type: disc;">
    <li>General Outcome Measures
    <ol style="list-style-type: decimal;">
      <li>text </li>
      <li>text </li>
      <li>text </li>
      <li>text </li>
</ol>

What I want to capture via the reg ex:

<ol style="list-style-type: disc;">
    <li>Disease Specific Outcomes:
    <ol style="list-style-type: decimal;">
        <li>text </li>
        <li>text 2</li>
        <li>text 3</li>
    </ol>
    </li>
</ol>

I was using this, but now since there are line breaks the reg ex fails.

                            Regex r1 = new Regex("(<ol).*(Disease Specific Outcomes:).*?(General Outcome Measure)");
                            Regex r2 = new Regex(".+(</ol>)");
                            outcomeMeasures = r1.Match(outcomeMeasures).ToString();
                            outcomeMeasures = r2.Match(outcomeMeasures).ToString();

Please help..

Moved by SGWellens on Oct 02, 2010 12:47 AM

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robert.weste...

Contributor

2352 Points

399 Posts

Re: Regular Expression Help

Oct 02, 2010 08:22 AM|LINK

Hi theoryTim.net,

The following regular expression should do the trick:

If you also want to exclude the li-tag from the result, you can use this instead: 


Here's a sample program displaying the results (the file inputdata.txt contains your sample text):
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    foreach (var match in GetMatches(GetInputFromFile()))
        Console.WriteLine(match);


    Console.WriteLine("Press any key to quit.");
    Console.ReadKey();
}


private static string GetInputFromFile()
{
    return System.IO.File.ReadAllText("InputData.txt");
}


private static IEnumerable<string> GetMatches(string inputString)
{
    const string regularExpressionStringIncludingLiTag = @"<li>Disease Specific Outcomes:\s*?<ol[^>]*>\s*(?:(?<myGroup><li>[^<]*</li>)[^<]*)*</ol>[^<]*</li>";
    const string regularExpressionStringExcludingLiTag = @"<li>Disease Specific Outcomes:\s*?<ol[^>]*>\s*(?:<li>(?<myGroup>[^<]*)</li>[^<]*)*</ol>[^<]*</li>";
    Regex regEx = new Regex(regularExpressionStringIncludingLiTag);


    var match = regEx.Match(inputString);
    if (match != null && match.Success)
    {
        var matchGroup = match.Groups["myGroup"];
        if (matchGroup != null && matchGroup.Success)
        {
            foreach (Capture capture in matchGroup.Captures)
                yield return capture.Value;
        }
    }
}

Hope it helps!

/Robert

My blog on code, technology and tools in .NET and C#.

Dont forget to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helped you.
This credits that member, earns you a point and marks your thread as Resolved so we will all know you have been helped.

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theoryTim.ne...

Member

53 Points

29 Posts

Re: Regular Expression Help

Oct 02, 2010 05:16 PM|LINK

Thanks Robert..

I'll be the first to admit I am horrible with reg expressions.

Your result is very close. Is there anyway to include all the <ol> tags and all ending </li></ol> tags that come before the section "General Specific Outcomes"?

Examples I am getting:

<ol style="list-style-type: disc;">
 <li>Disease Specific Outcomes:
 <ol style="list-style-type: decimal;">
 <li>Text text</li>
 <li>Text text</li>
 <li>Text text</li>
 </ol>
 </li>
</ol>
<ol style="list-style-type: disc;">
 <li>General Outcome Measures
 <ol style="list-style-type: decimal;">
 <li>Admission Assessments Completed:
 <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;">
 <li>Text text</li>
 <li>Text text</li>
 <li>Text text</li>
 </ol>
 </li>
</ol>

I get this:

<li>Disease Specific Outcomes:
 <ol style="list-style-type: decimal;">
 <li>Text text</li>
 <li>Text text</li>
 <li>Text text</li>
 </ol>
 </li>

const string regEx = @"<li>Disease Specific Outcomes:\s*?<ol[^>]*>\s*(?:(?<myGroup><li>[^<]*</li>)[^<]*)*</ol>[^<]*</li>";

Regex r1 = new Regex(regEx);

outcomeMeasures = r1.Match(outcomeMeasures).ToString();

Beginning and ending tags are missing. I highly appreciate your help, the reg ex you provided looks very sophiscated and beyond my editing ability.

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robert.weste...

Contributor

2352 Points

399 Posts

Re: Regular Expression Help

Oct 03, 2010 01:15 AM|LINK

Hi theoryTim.net,

Indeed it should be possible. Just expand the regular expression with "<ol[^>]*>[^<]*" before the start of the previous regular expression and append "[^<]*</ol>" to the end of the string. I can't verify this at the moment, but that should do the trick.

Hope it helps!

/Robert

My blog on code, technology and tools in .NET and C#.

Dont forget to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helped you.
This credits that member, earns you a point and marks your thread as Resolved so we will all know you have been helped.

Marked as answer by theorytim.net on Oct 03, 2010 04:25 PM

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theoryTim.ne...

Member

53 Points

29 Posts

Re: Regular Expression Help

Oct 03, 2010 04:26 PM|LINK

Thank you Robert. Seems to work perfectly!

Now instead of worrying about a solution, I can try to understand one that works. Some day i'll be able to write reg ex's.

Thanks so much Robert!!!!!

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theoryTim.ne...

Member

53 Points

29 Posts

Re: Regular Expression Help

Oct 03, 2010 06:17 PM|LINK

Sorry, but i do require your wisedom and assitance once again.

Sometimes there can be embedded tags within the <li> tags in which i'd like to capture too... example:

<ol style="list-style-type: disc;">
 <li>Disease Specific Outcomes:
 <ol style="list-style-type: decimal;">
 <li>text text </li>
 <li>text text </li>
 <li>text text.</li>
 </ol>
 </li>
</ol>

I have had no luck using http://gskinner.com/RegExr/ in modifying the regex you provided. Any ideas on this one?

Edited by theorytim.net on Oct 03, 2010 06:37 PM

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robert.weste...

Contributor

2352 Points

399 Posts

Re: Regular Expression Help

Oct 04, 2010 06:55 AM|LINK

Hi again,

Yes, you could use the following regular expression:

<ol[^>]*>[^<]*<li>Disease Specific Outcomes:[^<]*<ol[^>]*>[^<]*(?:<li>.*(?=</li>)</li>[^<]*)*</ol>[^<]*</li>[^<]*</ol>

(I have removed the named group, since you did not seem to be using it.)

Hope it helps!

/Robert

My blog on code, technology and tools in .NET and C#.

Dont forget to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helped you.
This credits that member, earns you a point and marks your thread as Resolved so we will all know you have been helped.

Marked as answer by theorytim.net on Oct 04, 2010 06:59 PM

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robert.weste...

Contributor

2352 Points

399 Posts

Re: Regular Expression Help

Oct 04, 2010 08:19 AM|LINK

Hi,

Just in case you want an attempt at an explanation of the regular expression, here you go:

"<ol" - Matches the literal string "<ol"
"[^>]*" - Matches any number of occurances (0 to many) of any character except ">" (will match all potential attributes inside the ol-tag)
">" - Matches the literal string ">" (will match the end of the attributes for the ol-tag
"[^<]*" - Matches any number of occurances of any character except "<" (will match all characters until the start of the next tag)
"<li>Disease Specific Outcomes:" - Matches the literal string.
"[^<]*" - Matches any number of occurances of any character except "<" (will match all characters until the start of the next tag)
"<ol" - Matches the literal string "<ol"
"[^>]*" - Matches any number of occurances (0 to many) of any character except ">" (will match all potential attributes inside the ol-tag)
">" - Matches the literal string ">" (will match the end of the attributes for the ol-tag
"[^<]*" - Matches any number of occurances of any character except "<" (will match all characters until the start of the next tag)
"(?:" - Starts an unnamed capture group
- "<li>" - Matches the literal string "<li>"
- ".*(?=</li>)" - Matches any character until they are followed by the literal string "</li>" (will not include the </li> in the match, since it is a positive lookahead)
- "</li>" - Matches the literal string "</li>"
- "[^<]*" - Matches any number of occurances of any character except "<" (will match all characters until the start of the next tag)
")*" - Ends the capture group an makes it match any number of times (0 to many)
"</ol>" - Matches the literal string "</ol>"
"[^<]*" - Matches any number of occurances of any character except "<" (will match all characters until the start of the next tag)
"</li>" - Matches the literal string "</li>"
"[^<]*" - Matches any number of occurances of any character except "<" (will match all characters until the start of the next tag)
"</ol>" - Matches the literal string "</ol>"

/Robert

My blog on code, technology and tools in .NET and C#.

Dont forget to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helped you.
This credits that member, earns you a point and marks your thread as Resolved so we will all know you have been helped.

Edited by robert.westerlund on Oct 04, 2010 08:19 AM
Edited by robert.westerlund on Oct 04, 2010 08:22 AM

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theoryTim.ne...

Member

53 Points

29 Posts

Re: Regular Expression Help

Oct 04, 2010 07:00 PM|LINK

I cannot thank you enough for this. This is gold in my eyes.

Btw, the alternate reg ex works as' well. Thank you Robert, thank you very much!

Reply

theoryTim.ne...

Member

53 Points

29 Posts

Re: Regular Expression Help

Oct 08, 2010 03:25 AM|LINK

Robert,

The detailed write out I just sat down and went through since I have the time. I really think I learned something with your help. I am anticipating the next occurence I will need to apply some reg ex to with my newfound confidence.

Thanks just one more time!

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