Replace in String using Wildcards

[MARAN]

Whats up?

I need your help again...

Basically, I need to replace this string with another but using wildcards (not really wildcards): '<a href="*ANY KIND OF CHARACTERS HERE*">'.

In Example:

$string1 = '<b>Some text:</b></br></br><a href="http://127.0.0.1">THIS A LINK</a></br></br><b>The End.</b>'
$string2 = ReplaceIt($string1, '<a href="*anything*">THIS A LINK</a>', "THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT", 0, 0)
; The function above does not exists, just used to show the example. The last two paremeters are the "occurence" and "casesense" respectively.
; The *anything* is any string that contains any char within any len. of chars

$fileLocation = @DesktopDir & "\test1.htm"
FileDelete($fileLocation)
FileWrite(FileOpen($fileLocation), $string2)

Some text:

THIS IS A LINK

The End.

would become:

Some text:

THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT

The End.

I've searched the forums already but nothing exactly fits to what I need.

Hope you can help me again guys

Thanks in advance.

[JohnOne]

StringRegExReplace() is the function you are looking for.

[MARAN]

StringRegExReplace() is the function you are looking for.

Can you show me how to do based in my example?

Thanks.

Edited May 4, 2010 by MARAN

[dantay9]

I learned regex using Expresso. Try it out, you might like it.

[Yoriz]

If <a at the start and a> at the end are constant you could do it like this.

$string1 = '<b>Some text:</b></br></br><a href="http://127.0.0.1">THIS A LINK</a></br></br><b>The End.</b>'
;~ $string2 = ReplaceIt($string1, '<a href="*anything*">THIS A LINK</a>', "THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT", 0, 0)
$sYourString = "THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT"
$sLeft = StringLeft($string1, StringInStr($string1, "<a")-1)
$sRight = StringRight($string1, StringLen($string1)-(StringInStr($string1, "a>")+1))
ConsoleWrite($sLeft & $sYourString & $sRight & @CR)

[JohnOne]

Can you show me how to do based in my example?

Thanks.

Im afraid Im useless at it.

Like dantay9 says try expresso, I think that has bult in pattern for removing links

[MARAN]

I learned regex using Expresso. Try it out, you might like it.

Yes I know that, but I wanna make it entirely on AutoIt 'cuz the string will be dynamic.

What I want to do:

- Get the sourcecode from a page and save it to a file each 5 minutes: done.

- Split the code and get only some regions of it: done.

- Remove all the links from it, but keeping the text of the links: we are treating it at this thread.

- Format the code to plain/text and separate the values using tabulation (it's a table) and save to a file: done.

- PHP will distribute the values into a new table: done.

[MARAN]

If <a at the start and a> at the end are constant you could do it like this.

$string1 = '<b>Some text:</b></br></br><a href="http://127.0.0.1">THIS A LINK</a></br></br><b>The End.</b>'
;~ $string2 = ReplaceIt($string1, '<a href="*anything*">THIS A LINK</a>', "THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT", 0, 0)
$sYourString = "THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT"
$sLeft = StringLeft($string1, StringInStr($string1, "<a")-1)
$sRight = StringRight($string1, StringLen($string1)-(StringInStr($string1, "a>")+1))
ConsoleWrite($sLeft & $sYourString & $sRight & @CR)

It could be if the string have only one link, but it have more than 10. If I do this it will cut off all the rest of the string.

[jchd]

Like this?

$string1 = '<b>Some text:</b></br></br><a href="http://127.0.0.1">THIS A LINK</a><a href="http://127.0.0.1">and another</a></br></br><b>The End.</b>'
$sYourString = "THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT"
$string2 = StringRegExpReplace($string1, '<a href="[^"]*">.*?</a>', $sYourString)
ConsoleWrite($string2 & @CR)

There is no separator at all. Is that what you need?

[GEOSoft]

Maybe you best re-start with some examples of the html and what you expect to match. If it's just getting the text from the <a></a> tags then I've posted it a dozen times and I can post it again but we need some clarification here.

What are you trying to match exactly

<a href="http:\\www.somesite.com\somepage.htm">Get this part</a>

or

<a href="http:\\www.somesite.com\somepage.htm">GET THIS PART ONLY IF IT IS UPPER CASE</a>

or

<a href="http:\\www.getthis.com\somepage.htm">Some text</a>

[jchd]

Hi George,

From the example in the OP's first post, I tend to believe he wants to get rid of the hyperlink altogether. Now if that's wrong, we've some more amunition to shoot targets having "more legs" than that.

[funkey]

Try this.

Func _StringReplaceWildCard($sTest, $sWildCard, $sReplace)
    Local $sPattern = "(" & $sWildCard & ")"
    $sPattern = StringReplace($sPattern, ".", "\.")
    $sPattern = StringReplace($sPattern, "[", "\[")
    $sPattern = StringReplace($sPattern, "]", "\]")
    $sPattern = StringReplace($sPattern, "+", "\+")
    $sPattern = StringReplace($sPattern, "*", ".*")
    $sPattern = StringReplace($sPattern, "?", ".")
    ConsoleWrite($sPattern & @CR)
    Return StringRegExpReplace($sTest, $sPattern, $sReplace)
EndFunc


$string1 = '<b>Some text:</b></br></br><a href="[url="http://127.0.0.1"]http://127.0.0.1">THIS[/url] A LINK</a></br></br><b>The End.</b>'
 ConsoleWrite(_StringReplaceWildCard($string1, '<a href="*">THIS A LINK</a>', 'THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT') & @CR)

[GEOSoft]

Any guess is as good as the next at this point. If you are correct then does s/he want the text left in or removed along with the link? no matter which of the sveral possibilities it's a SRE question but we need to see a clear cut question before we can provide a definitive solution. Or We could cover all the possibilties and just post a whole bunch of random SRE's. We could refer to that as the shotgun method of using RegEx, it kills everything in a wide range.

[jchd]

You're right, let's stop using chainguns!

@Funkey

There is a convenient way to prevent unwanted interpretation of eventual metacharacters in the case you illustrate: make $pattern = '\Q' & $pattern & '\E' and $pattern will be interpreted verbatim. I think that letting * match .* without control is a sword with two sides.

[MARAN]

Like this?

$string1 = '<b>Some text:</b></br></br><a href="http://127.0.0.1">THIS A LINK</a><a href="http://127.0.0.1">and another</a></br></br><b>The End.</b>'
$sYourString = "THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT"
$string2 = StringRegExpReplace($string1, '<a href="[^"]*">.*?</a>', $sYourString)
ConsoleWrite($string2 & @CR)

There is no separator at all. Is that what you need?

That's it man, thank you!

$string1 = '<b>Some text:</b></br></br><a href="http://127.0.0.1">THIS A LINK</a><a href="http://127.0.0.1">and another</a></br></br><b>The End.</b>'
$sYourString = "THIS IS SOME UPPERCASE TEXT"
$string2 = StringRegExpReplace($string1, '<a href="[^"]*">', "")
$string3 = StringReplace($string2, "</a>", "</br>", 1)
$string4 = StringReplace($string3, "</a>", "", 1)
ConsoleWrite($string4 & @CR)

Also thanking everyone who spent some minutes to answer my question.

#Solved