[RESOLVED] Regex Problem

[mpdeglau]

I am parsing through an HTML file using regex. I am trying to get the information that is between my pattern. But if I tell it to match any position preceding the expression (using ?=) it works. If I tell it to match following the expression it doesn't work.

Sample HTML Doc

    <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%;" class="f-bold">
    
    
              <tr>
      
      <td valign="top" class="pr-10" style="width:50%;">
        <a href="http://www.aUrl">First Value Here</a><br />
        Second Value Here
      </td>
      
            
            
    
      
      <td valign="top" class="pr-10" style="width:50%;">
        <a href="http://www.aUrl">First Value Here</a><br />
        Second Value Here
      </td>
      
              </tr>
            
              <tr>
          <td colspan="2">
            <div class="divider"></div>
          </td>
        </tr>
            
    
                            <tr>
      
      <td valign="top" class="pr-10" style="width:50%;">
        <a href="http://www.aUrl">First Value Here</a><br />
        Second Value Here
      </td>
      
            
            
    
      
      <td valign="top" class="pr-10" style="width:50%;">
        <a href="http://www.aUrl">First Value Here</a><br />
        Second Value Here
      </td>
      
              </tr>

                .....

Using this code:

Dim pattern As String = "(?=<td valign.*>).*?(?=</td>)"
Dim reg As New Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.Singleline)
Dim mc As MatchCollection = reg.Matches(pg)

mc has 4 values

<td valign="top" class="pr-10" style="width:50%;">
        <a href="http://www.aUrl">First Value Here</a><br />
        Second Value Here

<td valign="top" class="pr-10" style="width:50%;">
        <a href="http://www.aUrl">First Value Here</a><br />
        Second Value Here

<td valign="top" class="pr-10" style="width:50%;">
        <a href="http://www.aUrl">First Value Here</a><br />
        Second Value Here

<td valign="top" class="pr-10" style="width:50%;">
        <a href="http://www.aUrl">First Value Here</a><br />
        Second Value Here

The next code I try to make it so it doesn't return the <td.... > in the value

Dim pattern As String = "(?<=<td valign.*>).*?(?=</td>)"
Dim reg As New Regex(pattern, RegexOptions.Singleline)
Dim mc As MatchCollection = reg.Matches(pg)

The first entry is correct then...

        <a href="http://www.aUrl.com">First Value</a><br />
        Second Value

'then

      
            
            
    
      
      <td valign="top" class="pl-10" style="width:50%;">
       <a href="http://www.aUrl.com">First Value</a><br />
        Second Value

notice all the white space. What should I do to just get what is inside the <td....> </td>?

[gigemboy]

See if this is what you are wanting to do... I tweaked it according to your sample, so it would probably need to change if your html tags are coded a little different in other pages that you might want to try it on. It searches for a "<td" and "<a href" tag, and doesnt return the beginning and ending <td> tags...

'this was just a text file with your sample HTML in your first post...
        Dim MyString As String = New System.IO.StreamReader("c:\regex.txt").ReadToEnd
        Dim pattern As String = "(?<=<td.*?>.*?)<a href.*?>.*?</a>.*?(?=</td>)"
        Dim reg As New System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(pattern, System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.Singleline)
        Dim mc As System.Text.RegularExpressions.MatchCollection = reg.Matches(MyString)
        For Each match As System.Text.RegularExpressions.Match In mc
            MessageBox.Show(match.Value)
        Next

[mpdeglau]

Worker perfectly. Thanks.