Question about regular expressions

[rbhkamal]

If I had a string like the following:

<id>    -------------------------- #1
  <name>rbhkamal</name>
  <email></email>
</id>   -------------------------- #2
<session>
 <active>1</active>
 <id>rbhkamal</id> ---------- #3
</session>

How can make the regular expression below match only from #1 to #2? Right now it stops at #3.

<id>(?s)(.+)</id>

To be more precise; I need to know what can I use instead of "(?s)(.+)" to match anything but a specific word (in my case it's </id>).

I tried few failed attempts:

(?:\s?[^<][^\/][^i][^d][^>])+ ----This doesn't work and I don't know why!!!

([^(?:</id>)]*) ---- This one treats "</id>" each character individually.. not as a whole word

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Regards,

RK

[Paulie]

So what exactly do you want it to return from that sample?

[rbhkamal]

i want everything starting from "<id>" untill you get to the first "</id>".

[Marcuzzo18]

your example looks like xml, the tree looks off though.

look into the XMLDOM object, its methods and properties in particular.

This site has been a good resource for me.

you can start from scratch and build your own stuff like:

$xmlFile = @ScriptDir & "\xmlfile.xml"

$xmldoc = ObjCreate( 'Microsoft.XMLDOM' );create an instance of the xmlDom Object
If Not IsObj($xmldoc) Then exit; check if the object is successfully created
$xmldoc.load($xmlFile)
$xmldoc.async = False



$ROOT = $xmldoc.documentElement; get the root element

ConsoleWrite($ROOT.tagName & " is the Root node of the xml file and has " & $ROOT.childNodes.length & " childNodes" & @CRLF& @CRLF)

;loop through the childnodes
for $i = 0 To $ROOT.childNodes.length -1
    With $ROOT.childNodes($i)
        ConsoleWrite("child " & $i & " has the tagName: " & .tagName & " and has the text: " & .text & @CRLF)
    EndWith
Next

and your xmlfile would be lets say:

<offspring>
    <youngest>Benjamin</youngest>
    <middleChild>the outkasted one</middleChild>
    <oldest>Big Brother</oldest>
</offspring>

or you can look into the XMLDOM wrapper of eltorro XML DOM Wrapper UDF

i want everything starting from "<id>" untill you get to the first "</id>".

if you only want to get the content of a specific tagName then I would go for the getElementsBytagName method

hope this helps...

cheers

Edited July 7, 2008 by Marcuzzo18

[Paulie]

I think i got your RegExp if you are still going that route...

Try this pattern

(?s)(?i)<id>(.+?)</id>

#include <Array.au3>

$Test = "<id>"& _
"  <name>rbhkamal</name>"& _
"  <email></email>"& _
"</id>"& _
"<session>"& _
"<active>1</active>"& _
"<id>rbhkamal</id>"& _
"</session>"

$Options = "(?s)(?i)" ; "." match newlines / case-insensitive
$Start = "<id>"
$Mid = "(.+?)"
$End = "</id>"

$Expression = $Options&$Start&$Mid&$End

$Result = StringRegExp($Test, $Expression, 3)
_ArrayDisplay($Result)

[rbhkamal]

Thanks Marcuzzo18, that really helped. I just need to adjust the config file to a valid xml format. However, I've come accross this delema multiple times and every time I find a workaround.

I would still like to know how to match for anything except a specific string using regular expressions.

Regards,

RK

Edit: Thanks Paulie that actually works. I don't know how I didn't think of using mode 3... it must the weekend effect. lol

Edited July 7, 2008 by rbhkamal

[Paulie]

I would still like to know how to match for anything except a specific string using regular expressions.

The reg expression in my previous post matches everything between the "<id>" and "</id>" tags.

Were you expecting a different result?

EDIT: lol i replied before your edit muttley

Edited July 7, 2008 by Paulie

[enaiman]

It still is kinda "misterious" to me how this works; I've been testing different options without result (I know I have much to learn about).

IMO the

<id>(.+?)(?s)</id>

should have returned a match for the first section (mode 1) but it didn't; it matched only "rbhkamal".

(?s)<id>(.+?)</id>

works as intended ... I wonder ... why this (?s) in front of the expression makes such a difference because before first <id> is nothing so it should have been working without this ...

... darn regular expressions ... it's always a matter of trial and error for me muttley

[rbhkamal]

It still is kinda "misterious" to me how this works; I've been testing different options without result (I know I have much to learn about).

IMO the

<id>(.+?)(?s)</id>

should have returned a match for the first section (mode 1) but it didn't; it matched only "rbhkamal".

(?s)<id>(.+?)</id>

works as intended ... I wonder ... why this (?s) in front of the expression makes such a difference because before first <id> is nothing so it should have been working without this ...

... darn regular expressions ... it's always a matter of trial and error for me muttley

You need to put the flag "(?s)" before using the dot in "(.+?)" so that the "." will match a new line as well as any character. In the case of the first <id>...</id> there are new lines and that's why (.+?) failed. In the second one there are new lines thus (.+?) matched with "rbhkamal".