# Search and replace

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-and-replace/78006>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 2, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-and-replace/78006 "2006-12-02T18:45:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ishamid)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-and-replace/78006/1 "2006-12-02T18:45:51Z")

</div>

[total novice here]

Hi,

# I have a series of expressions like this (shortened from verbose xml)

# [\<text:sequence text:ref-name=“refAutoNr0”\>1\</text:sequence\> [\<text:sequence text:ref-name=“refAutoNr1”\>2\</text:sequence\> [\<text:sequence text:ref-name=“refAutoNr2”\>3\</text:sequence\> [\<text:sequence text:ref-name=“refAutoNr3”\>4\</text:sequence\>

I want to globally replace each such line with just

# ==================== \head

followed by a line space so I get

====================  
\head

\head

\head

# \head

etc.

I am modifying a script with lines like

# ==================== data.gsub!(/._?\<(office:text)._?\>(._?)\</\1\>._/mois) do ‘\starttext’ + “\n” + $2 + “\n” + ‘\stoptext’

and don’t yet know enough to completely understand. Probably a few more  
hours/days of study will get me there but I need this urgently so…

THNX in advance

Best  
Idris

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ishamid)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-and-replace/78006/2 "2006-12-02T19:01:52Z")

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ishamid wrote:

/ …

> and don’t yet know enough to completely understand. Probably a few more  
> hours/days of study will get me there but I need this urgently so…

If you will post a short, complete data example, even just one record as  
it  
appears in your database, so we don’t have to try to read between the  
lines, someone here will be happy to produce a way to filter the data in  
the way you want.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ishamid)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-and-replace/78006/3 "2006-12-02T19:17:55Z")

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ishamid wrote:

> =====================  
> \head  
> I am modifying a script with lines like

Urght. _ducks_

> Best  
> Idris

Regexps and XML always tend to blow up for me. The pattern you’re  
searching for seems to be a complete element, why not use and XPath?

With REXML, it should be something like:

document.elements.each(’//text:sequence’) {|sequence|  
sequence.replace\_with(REXML::Text.new("\head\n", true))}

Substitute the XPath expression with one of desired precision. I’m a  
little unsure around how REXML treats namespaces in XPath and such, but  
if you know what prefix will be used in the document, that should work  
out.

The script might also require a little more massaging if you’re  
outputting to plaintext, but treating XML like, well, XML might get the  
heavy lifting of searching for patterns in it done faster if you use a  
pattern language operating on the DOM structure directly.

David V.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ishamid)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-and-replace/78006/4 "2006-12-02T19:55:58Z")

</div>

Hi Paul,

On Dec 2, 10:56 am, Paul L. wrote:

If you will post a short, complete data example, even just one record  
as it

> appears in your database, so we don’t have to try to read between the  
> lines, someone here will be happy to produce a way to filter the data in  
> the way you want.

Ok, here are 4 bibliography entries. I just did a follow-up posting  
with more detail (including the full script I’m trying to modify) so  
you may prefer to respond to that one. Thank you very much for your  
help!.

======================  
\<text:p text:style-name=“ID”\>[\<text:sequence text:ref-name=“refAutoNr0”  
text:name=“AutoNr” text:formula=“ooow:AutoNr+1”  
style:num-format=“1”\>1\</text:sequence\>\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P6”\>'Abd al-Râziq, Ahmad\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T3”\>Die al-Azhar-Moschee\</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T4”\>., in, \</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T3”\>“Schätze der Kalifen: Islamische Kunst zur  
Fatimidenzeit.”\</text:span\>\<text:span text:style-name=“T4”\>,  
Herausgegeben von W. Seipel, Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien;  
Milan: Skira, 1998, pp. 144-147\</text:span\>\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P7”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P7”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“ID”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T5”\>[\</text:span\>\<text:sequence  
text:ref-name=“refAutoNr1” text:name=“AutoNr”  
text:formula=“ooow:AutoNr+1”  
style:num-format=“1”\>2\</text:sequence\>\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P8”\>'Abd al-Râziq, Ahmad\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T6”\>La mosquée al-Azhar\</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T7”\>., in, \</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T6”\>“Trésors fatimides du Caire. Exposition  
présentée à l’Institut du Monde Arabe …  
\</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T8”\>1998.”\</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T9”\>, Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe, 1998, pp.  
147-149\</text:span\>\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P7”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P7”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“ID”\>[\<text:sequence  
text:ref-name=“refAutoNr2” text:name=“AutoNr”  
text:formula=“ooow:AutoNr+1”  
style:num-format=“1”\>3\</text:sequence\>\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“Standard”\>text:s/'Amri, Husay  
'Abdallah\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T10”\>The Text of an Unpublished Fatwa of the Scholar  
al-Maqbali (d. 1108/1728) Concerning the Legal Position of the  
Batiniyyah (Isma’iliyyah) of the People of Hamdan\</text:span\>.,  
Translated by A.B.D.R. Eagle, \<text:span text:style-name=“Style2”\>New  
Arabian Studies\</text:span\>, 2 (1994), pp. 165-174.\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“ID”\>[\<text:sequence  
text:ref-name=“refAutoNr3” text:name=“AutoNr”  
text:formula=“ooow:AutoNr+1”  
style:num-format=“1”\>4\</text:sequence\>\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“Standard”\>Abarahamov, Binyamin\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T10”\>An Isma’ili Epistemology: The Case of  
Al-Da’i al-Mutlaq 'Ali b. Muhammad b. al-Walid\</text:span\>.,  
\<text:span text:style-name=“Style2”\>Journal of Semitic  
Studies\</text:span\>, 41ii (1996), pp. 263-273.\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>

======================

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ishamid)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-and-replace/78006/5 "2006-12-03T02:31:39Z")

</div>

ishamid wrote:

> Ok, here are 4 bibliography entries. I just did a follow-up posting  
> with more detail (including the full script I’m trying to modify) so  
> you may prefer to respond to that one. Thank you very much for your  
> help!.

Okay, thanks for the data example. Now to move forward, could you please  
tell us what you want to do with it? Which parts of the data end up in  
the  
output, and in what form?

You earlier said you wanted to process the XML to get a series of

\head

\head  
\head  
\head

But I think you mean these to be placeholders for the actual data, and I  
can’t sort out which parts of the XML are meant to end up in the “\head”  
elements.

It would help if you could show an example of the data in the XML and  
its  
literal relocation into the desired output format.

Postscript. I copied your posted data example and couldn’t parse it,  
because  
there is a mismatch between opening and closing tags – it’s a simple  
sanity check I always perform when dealing with XML, and unfortunately  
the  
posted data isn’t a complete, internally consistent XML sample. That  
would  
have allowed me to indent/format the XML and get some idea of its  
overall  
structure.

Without an internally consistent XML data block with balanced tags, I  
can’t  
parse the XML, and if I can’t parse the XML, I can’t extract any data  
from  
it in a reliable way.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ishamid)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-and-replace/78006/6 "2006-12-02T20:06:00Z")

</div>

Thank you, David, for your pointers. I’m still very much a novice (at  
the level of Chris P.'s Learn to Program) so I could not follow them  
all, but I do hope to learn more fast. I just sent a follow-up with  
more detail, including the script I’m trying to modify; I hope you have  
a chance to look at it…

Thank you again  
Idris

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@ishamid](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ishamid)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2006, 5:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/search-and-replace/78006/7 "2006-12-03T05:55:56Z")

</div>

ishamid wrote:

> Ok, here are 4 bibliography entries. I just did a follow-up posting  
> text:style-name=“T3”\>Die al-Azhar-Moschee\</text:span\>\<text:span  
> text:formula=“ooow:AutoNr+1”  
> 147-149\</text:span\>\</text:p\>  
> al-Maqbali (d. 1108/1728) Concerning the Legal Position of the  
> \<text:p text:style-name=“reference”\>\<text:span  
> text:style-name=“T10”\>An Isma’ili Epistemology: The Case of  
> Al-Da’i al-Mutlaq 'Ali b. Muhammad b. al-Walid\</text:span\>.,  
> \<text:span text:style-name=“Style2”\>Journal of Semitic  
> Studies\</text:span\>, 41ii (1996), pp. 263-273.\</text:p\>  
> \<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>  
> \<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>
> 
> ======================

puts DATA.read.gsub( %r{\<(text:sequence)\s[^\>]_\>(._?)\</\1\>}i,  
“\starttext\n\2\n\stoptext” )

— output -----

\<text:p text:style-name=“ID”\>[\starttext  
1  
\stoptext\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P6”\>'Abd al-R\xC3\xA2ziq,  
Ahmad\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T3”\>Die al-Azhar-Moschee\</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T4”\>., in, \</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T3”\>“Sch\xC3\xA4tze der Kalifen: Islamische Kunst  
zur  
Fatimidenzeit.”\</text:span\>\<text:span text:style-name=“T4”\>,  
Herausgegeben von W. Seipel, Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien;  
Milan: Skira, 1998, pp. 144-147\</text:span\>\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P7”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P7”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“ID”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T5”\>[\</text:span\>\starttext  
2  
\stoptext\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P8”\>'Abd al-R\xC3\xA2ziq,  
Ahmad\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T6”\>La mosqu\xC3©e al-Azhar\</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T7”\>., in, \</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T6”\>“Tr\xC3©sors fatimides du Caire. Exposition  
pr\xC3©sent\xC3©e \xC3 l’Institut du Monde Arabe …  
\</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T8”\>1998.”\</text:span\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T9”\>, Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe, 1998, pp.  
147-149\</text:span\>\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P7”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“P7”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“ID”\>[\starttext  
3  
\stoptext\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“Standard”\>text:s/'Amri, Husay  
'Abdallah\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T10”\>The Text of an Unpublished Fatwa of the Scholar  
al-Maqbali (d. 1108/1728) Concerning the Legal Position of the  
Batiniyyah (Isma’iliyyah) of the People of Hamdan\</text:span\>.,  
Translated by A.B.D.R. Eagle, \<text:span text:style-name=“Style2”\>New  
Arabian Studies\</text:span\>, 2 (1994), pp. 165-174.\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“ID”\>[\starttext  
4  
\stoptext\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“Standard”\>Abarahamov, Binyamin\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”\>\<text:span  
text:style-name=“T10”\>An Isma’ili Epistemology: The Case of  
Al-Da’i al-Mutlaq 'Ali b. Muhammad b. al-Walid\</text:span\>.,  
\<text:span text:style-name=“Style2”\>Journal of Semitic  
Studies\</text:span\>, 41ii (1996), pp. 263-273.\</text:p\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>  
\<text:p text:style-name=“reference”/\>