Extracting text from <label> tag

[cjessex]

Hi fellow vb-ers,

I'm trying to extract the text between:
<label for=field_1> and </label>

I have captured the HTML into a string using the webbrowser control, and am using the following function to try and get the text within the tag:

Public Function midReturn(ByVal first As String, ByVal last As String, ByVal total As String) As String
        If last.Length < 1 Then
            midReturn = total.Substring(total.IndexOf(first))
        End If
        If first.Length < 1 Then
            midReturn = total.Substring(0, (total.IndexOf(last)))
        End If
        Try
            midReturn = ((total.Substring(total.IndexOf(first), (total.IndexOf(last) - total.IndexOf(first)))).Replace(first, "")).Replace(last, "")
        Catch ArgumentOutOfRangeException As Exception
        End Try
    End Function

However, this code will not work, if I use <label for=field_1> as the first string and </label> as the second... I'm a n00b to visual basic, can anybody help me out please?

[cjessex]

I think the problem is quite likely that </label> appears many times within the code.. before and after the snippet I'm trying to get.?

[danasegarane]

Try this method

[J-Deezy]

Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions

    Private Function GetBetween(ByVal start As String, ByVal final As String, ByVal whatFrom As String) As String
        Return Regex.Match(whatFrom, "(?<=" & start & ").+(?=" & final & ")").Value
    End Function

[cjessex]

Hi thankyou for your reply,

When I use the code you provided, I get the following error:

Array bounds cannot appear in type specifiers.

This is referring to the 'whatFrom'..?

[J-Deezy]

See my edit, I wrote it out via the forum, not in an IDE so I illegally named a variable without realising (originally used "end" etc) the modified version should work.

[gep13]

Hey,

I am going to go out on a limb, and say that you are parsing an HTML string. If you are, you might want to think about using this HTML Agility Pack:

http://htmlagilitypack.codeplex.com/

It does a lot of the heavy lifting of parsing the HTML for you.

Hope that helps!

Gary