this is probably elementary but I just havent found the right/
reliable way to do this (that works always)
if a string has content in tags such as content goes here </
TagName> whats the best way to put the content inside an array… the
content can have whitespace chars (end of lines tabs etc) that should
be preserved in the array element. These tags are simple (no
properties).
I assume that the scan method is relevant but am having trouble
constructing a regex that works reliably.
[email protected] wrote:
constructing a regex that works reliably.
try
html_file.scan(/(.+?)</).flatten
This will put the text contents of all tags into an array.
Cheers,
Peter
Here is a simple test case
s = \nXXX\n\n\n
\n Administrative Support - Supervisors\n</
VariableValue>\n\n"
for the VariableValue tag, there should be 2 array elements \nXXX
\n AND \n Administrative Support - Supervisors\n
s.scan(/(.+?)</).flatten returns an empty array
[email protected] wrote:
Here is a simple test case
s = \nXXX\n\n\n
\n Administrative Support - Supervisors\n</
VariableValue>\n\n"
for the VariableValue tag, there should be 2 array elements \nXXX
\n AND \n Administrative Support - Supervisors\n
s.scan(/(.+?)</).flatten returns an empty array
Ah OK, I did not know there can be other tags inside. This works better:
s.scan(/(.+?)</VariableValue>/m).flatten
(note the ‘m’ flag for multiline)
however, to really match your example, I needed this:
s.scan(/(.+?)</\n?VariableValue>/m).flatten
are you sure there is a line break between / and the tag name?
Cheers,
Peter
No there isnt any (due to wrapping here)…
I didnt know about the multiline option (seem to have missed that in
the docs). that worked
thanks very much
On Apr 6, 1:43 pm, Alex Y. [email protected] wrote:
Sorry, I didn’t notice that your tags aren’t matched. Is that
intentional? If so, ignore my suggestion - REXML clearly won’t work.
–
Alex
the content can be quite nonstandard and have mismatched tags etc
(like real life html)… so this is not xml
I will use rexml when the input is xml… thanks for your suggestion.
this group is very useful for newbies.
btw, if the content is funky, you could still try Hpricot - it handles
such crap surprisingly nicely, and unless you would like to match more
complicated things than a text between an opening and closing tag, it
will really make your life easier.
Cheers,
Peter