Objective-C regex to remove part of string

Question

Hi im trying to remove som HTML string from a web response. I want to remove <pre><a style="" name="output-line-1">1</a>, were the who instances of number "1"varies, but is always a digit. but how do i write the regex method for removing this? Below is what i have got so far:

-(NSString *)stringByStrippingHTML:(NSString*)str
{
    NSRange r;
   while ((r = [str rangeOfString:@"/^<pre><a style=\"\"name=\"output-line-([0-9])\">([0-9])</a>"  options:NSRegularExpressionSearch]).location != NSNotFound){

        str = [str stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:r withString:@""];

    }
 }

Basically I want to remove a substring with random number in it... In some instances of the substring the 1 is replaced, so that any similar string gets acknowledged, for example it could be output-line-999. How do i combine the range of string so i can both describe the string and specify to find any similar string with any number?

I want to remove both the HTML and the numbers.

If it's an issue with compilation, it'll be because you haven't escaped the quotation marks in the html string. Replace " with \" (apart from the outer ones) — Alex Blundell
– Alex Blundell, Commented May 31, 2013 at 12:38

Antonio MG · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-31 13:19:43Z

1

This regular expression should work:

[str rangeOfString:@"<pre><a style=\"\" name=\"output-line-[0-9]+\">[0-9]+</a>"  options:NSRegularExpressionSearch];

I thnk the problem is that there ins't a space before name in your reg expression

edited May 31, 2013 at 13:19

answered May 31, 2013 at 12:37

Antonio MG

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5 Comments

David Karlsson Over a year ago

It was good, i updated the questioned from what i learned, but it dont really work yet ;)

Antonio MG Over a year ago

I just found the problem, use the regular expression I just put

Rob Over a year ago

@DavidKarlsson This regex is missing a + after the [0-9] references, which should be [0-9]+.

David Karlsson Over a year ago

thanks, added also to clear the blank lines left : str = [str stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]];

David Karlsson Over a year ago

What does the + signs do? are numbers higher than 9 supported by this regex?

Rob · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-31 13:18:17Z

Using your original while loop, you can:

-(NSString *)stringByStrippingHTML:(NSString*)str
{
    NSRange r;
    while ((r = [str rangeOfString:@"<pre><a style=\"\" name=\"output-line-[0-9]+\">[0-9]+</a>"  options:NSRegularExpressionSearch]).location != NSNotFound) 
    {
        str = [str stringByReplacingCharactersInRange:r withString:@""];
    }
 }

Or you can use NSRegularExpression:

NSMutableString *input = ...

NSError *error;
NSRegularExpression *regex;
regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:@"<pre><a style=\"\" name=\"output-line-[0-9]+\">[0-9]+</a>"
                                                  options:0
                                                    error:&error];
if (error)
{
    NSLog(@"error=%@",error);
    return;
}

[regex replaceMatchesInString:input
                      options:0
                        range:NSMakeRange(0, [input length])
                 withTemplate:@""];

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