String Parsing

can anyone help me or tell me if this is possible.

is there any way i can search a string lets say:

"this is a string <url> www.vb-world.net </url> this is a string"

and return the value between the <url> </url> tags?

what if there were no space like this:
"<url>www.vb-world.net<url>"

any help woudl be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Is a way, maybe not the best but....

Code:

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Private Sub Command1_Click()
MsgBox Trim(Replace(Replace("<url>www.vb-world.com</url>", "<url>", "", 1), "</url>", "", 1))
End Sub

---

I used code similar to this to search for and report multiple instances of a certain item in over 10,000 html pages. And not every page even contained the string, and each was different, but always in between two constant characters (but not tags, so it made it a little more fun). Prior to this section of code, I have created an instance of a filesystemobject, that is simply looping through each file in the directory (strFileContents = objTextStream.ReadAll) Not the prettiest code in the world, but works like a charm! Good Luck!

Code:

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Private Sub cmdGo_Click()
  strBegin = "<url>"
  strEnd = "</url>

            Do While InStr(1, strFileContents, strBegin, 1) > 0
                intPos = InStr(1, strFileContents, strBegin)
               
                ' next, find the point at which the string  can be extracted
                intEndPos = InStr(intPos, strFileContents, strEnd)
               
                ' begin the oh so fun task of extracting
                strURL = Mid(strFileContents, intPos, intEndPos - intPos)
                strURL = Replace(strURL, strBegin, "")
               
                ' insert code here to do whatever you need it to do
                ' with the current strURL, i simply placed the information
                ' that i extracted into a db table
               
                strTemp = Right(strFileContents, Len(strFileContents) - intPos)
                strFileContents = strTemp
            Loop
End Sub

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I played with your code idover. It works until intEndPos - intPos is > 0. then an invalid procedure occurs. You can't have a negative number in the mid function.

Code:

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strURL = Mid(strFileContents, intPos, intEndPos - intPos)

---

won't work if for example:

strUrl = Mid(STRING,45,-65)

-65 is no good....

add this to the code:

Code:

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Private Sub cmdGo_Click()
  strBegin = "<url>"
  strEnd = "</url>"
      Do While InStr(1, strFileContents, strBegin, 1) > 0
        intPos = InStr(1, strFileContents, strBegin)
        intEndPos = InStr(intPos, strFileContents, strEnd)
IF intPos > intEndPos then goto Skip 'ADD THIS LINE!
  strURL = Mid(strFileContents, intPos, intEndPos - intPos)
  strURL = Replace(strURL, strBegin, "")
               
' insert code here to do whatever you need it to do
' with the current strURL, i simply placed the information
' that i extracted into a db table
   
Skip:        'AND THIS LINE!   
strTemp = Right(strFileContents, Len(strFileContents)-intPos)
strFileContents = strTemp
Loop
End Sub

---

this way if the intEndPos - intPos is a negative number..it skips it. (this most likely happens at the end of the search). Now I am no expert...but this seem to work for me. There is most likely a better way (there always is isn't ther!) :P

This code worked for me just fine. But you are right, you can't use a negative number in the Mid function. However, there are no negative positions in a text file. The code as shown works from the beginning of the current string, (which is shortened with each occurance of your search string) and searches for and records the position of the tags "<url>, </url>". The code is designed to never begin a search prior to the position of the previous occurance, hence the shortening of the entire string. It seems to me that the only way that you could get a a negative number is if the string is not being shortened for some reason and a closing tag is found before its companion opening tag, signifying a missing tag. You should try counting the number of opening and closing tags, and make sure that they're equal.

Thats true...
What I used to test it was...created a textbox.
dumped this into it:

Quote:

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can anyone help me or tell me if this is possible.

is there any way i can search a string lets say:

"this is a string <url> http://www.vb-world.net </url> this is a string"

and return the value between the <url> </url> tags?

what if there were no space like this:
"<url>www.vb-world.net<url>"

any help woudl be greatly appreciated.

thanks

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and it came up with the error...

I just noticed....this:
"<url>www.vb-world.net<url>"
2 openening tags.....

Bingo!

Great!... Hopefully this fixed your problem?...

Thanks so much, i actually though of an algorithm before i went to sleep that looks like this. It works quite well too.

_________________________________________________________
Public Function stringBetween(word As String, startstring As String, endstring As String) As String

Dim first As Integer
Dim last As Integer

first = InStr(word, startstring) + Len(startstring) 'finds pos at end of first word
last = InStr(word, endstring) ' finds the pos at the beginning of the second word

If (last <= first) Then 'prevents errors
stringBetween = "Not Found"
Else
stringBetween = Mid(word, first, (last - first)) 'returns the string in between
End If

End Function

the function::::

Private function HighlightFonts(txt)
Dim rst

if not txt = "" then
txt = replace(txt,"whatever"," what ever")
end if
HighlightFonts=txt

end function



the call
<%=HighlightFonts(rst.fields("SUBHEADING"))%>