Extract string using a regular expression

Question

I am trying to extract values "app_name" and "This is a great app" from the following but do not know how I can do that. I am not able to figure out the regular expression for this.

This is what my input looks like:

<string name = "app_name"> This is a great app </string>

This is not an effort to read values from Strings.xml on to Java code in Android. This is a totally different case, I just want to print out the values.

is it in your projects Strings.xml resource file? If so you don't need to use regex to pull out the value of it. — FoamyGuy
– FoamyGuy, Commented Apr 20, 2012 at 21:14
and this looks like xml to me... even if it's not in your Strings.xml file, you don't need regex — jadkik94
– jadkik94, Commented Apr 20, 2012 at 21:17
@Tim,@jadk I am not trying to refer this in Android app, this is totally different case. — David Prun
– David Prun, Commented Apr 20, 2012 at 21:30
@Randon P Then why did you tag your question with [android]? =O — FoamyGuy
– FoamyGuy, Commented Apr 20, 2012 at 21:36

Benjam · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-20 21:17:38Z

1

/<string name="([^"]+)">([^<]+)<\/string>/i

The name attribute (app_name) will be stored in back-reference 1, and the actual string value (This is a great app) will be stored in back-reference 2.

With more information, this regexp can be modified to work in a greater variety of situations, but with the limited information given, it will work, but may not work in all cases.

answered Apr 20, 2012 at 21:17

Benjam

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2 Comments

David Prun Over a year ago

Can you show it in code, I am not able to identify the functions to be used for parameter /<string name="([^"]+)">([^<]+)<\/string>/i . Thanks.

Benjam Over a year ago

As I'm not a Java nor Android programmer, I don't know the functions or relevant code that you would need to use.

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