Regular expression: anything except

ruby-talk
1

Hello,

I am trying to create a regular expression with the following rule:

my text is:
<TEXT id=''>blabla</TEXT>
I want to replace <TEXT*> with something

"<TEXT id=''>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

but i want also that
"<TEXT>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

and
<TEXT *anything*>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular
expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

Can you help me ?

Thank you.

Gunther

···

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

2

I am trying to create a regular expression with the following rule:

my text is:
<TEXT id=''>blabla</TEXT>
I want to replace <TEXT*> with something

"<TEXT id=''>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

This example isn't consistent with the following ones -- do you
want the ending </TEXT> inserted even if it's not in the original
string?

but i want also that
"<TEXT>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

and
<TEXT *anything*>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular
expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

Assuming the second two are actually what you want, try

"<TEXT id='foo'>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/<TEXT[^>]*>/, 'replacement')

HTH,

···

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 7:10 AM, Gunther Gunt <gunther.thevenin@airbus.com> wrote:
--
Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder@gmail.com

3

Sure. Since it looks like XML, I recommend using an XML parser. It not
a good idea to parse XML with regular expressions; doing it robustly
is difficult, as there are many details that can trip you up.

What you want is the text content of the TEXT element. Try this:

require 'hpricot'
xml = Hpricot::XML('<TEXT id="foo" anything="whatever">blabla</TEXT>')
puts xml.search("//TEXT").text

# => "blabla"

- Mark.

···

On Aug 13, 10:10 am, Gunther Gunt <gunther.theve...@airbus.com> wrote:

Hello,

I am trying to create a regular expression with the following rule:

my text is:
<TEXT id=''>blabla</TEXT>
I want to replace <TEXT*> with something

"<TEXT id=''>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

but i want also that
"<TEXT>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

and
<TEXT *anything*>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular
expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

Can you help me ?

4

/<TEXT[^>]*>/

···

* Gunther Gunt <gunther.thevenin@airbus.com> wrote:

Hello,

I am trying to create a regular expression with the following rule:

my text is:
<TEXT id=''>blabla</TEXT>
I want to replace <TEXT*> with something

"<TEXT id=''>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

but i want also that
"<TEXT>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

and
<TEXT *anything*>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular
expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

--
Lars Haugseth

"If anyone disagrees with anything I say, I am quite prepared not only to
retract it, but also to deny under oath that I ever said it." -Tom Lehrer

5

Hassan Schroeder wrote:

···

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 7:10 AM, Gunther Gunt > <gunther.thevenin@airbus.com> wrote:

I am trying to create a regular expression with the following rule:

my text is:
<TEXT id=''>blabla</TEXT>
I want to replace <TEXT*> with something

"<TEXT id=''>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

This example isn't consistent with the following ones -- do you
want the ending </TEXT> inserted even if it's not in the original
string?

but i want also that
"<TEXT>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

and
<TEXT *anything*>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/the magic regular
expression/,"replacement")
returns the same result
==> replacementblabla</TEXT>

Assuming the second two are actually what you want, try

"<TEXT id='foo'>blabla</TEXT>".gsub(/<TEXT[^>]*>/, 'replacement')

HTH,

I had just found the solution, and I was posting it.

Thank you anyway ;o)

Gunther
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

6

I said:

Since it looks like XML, I recommend using an XML parser. It not
a good idea to parse XML with regular expressions; doing it robustly
is difficult, as there are many details that can trip you up.

< TEXT id="foo">blabla</TEXT>

Oops! Now the regex doesn't work.