Pattern between two string in java

Question

I have a long string which is of the form:

enter image description here

How can i extract the data between <DETAIL> and </TEXT>, note that its NOT an xml file. There is a new line after every ending. I tried the following :

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("<DETAIL>(.*?)</TEXT>");
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string);
    while (matcher.find()) {
        System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
    }

It gives me null values, any one can help ? Thanks in advance.

falsetru · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-16 17:49:09Z

5

By default, . does not match newline.

Use s flag (DOTALL) to make . match to newline.

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(?s)<DETAIL>(.*?)</TEXT>");

or

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("<DETAIL>(.*?)</TEXT>", Pattern.DOTALL);

edited Jan 16, 2014 at 17:49

answered Jan 16, 2014 at 17:36

falsetru

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5 Comments

Pshemo Over a year ago

+1, other version without not so intuitive (?s): Pattern.compile("<DETAIL>(.*?)</TEXT>", Pattern.DOTALL);

falsetru Over a year ago

@Pshemo, I add that to the answer. Thank you for comment.

Parameswar Over a year ago

thanks a lot !, is there anyway get the values of the DATE after extracting ? by using another pattern matching or something ? After extracting i get a empty line followed by DATE=1233 in a new line and DAY=Monday in another line,

falsetru Over a year ago

@parameswar, How about using <DETAIL>.*?DATE=(\d+).*?</TEXT> as patttern?

Parameswar Over a year ago

Thanks again, just had to tweak it a bit, added \S to match a mix of integers and characters

tenub · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-16 17:36:26Z

0

Try [\s\S]*? in place of .*?. . does not match new lines.

answered Jan 16, 2014 at 17:36

tenub

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5 Comments

Pshemo Over a year ago

+0. It will work, but to get rid of this kind of solution there is DOTALL flag (?s).

tenub Over a year ago

At least [\s\S] is a solution that works across different languages.

Pshemo Over a year ago

(?s) is not Java only flag.

tenub Over a year ago

Yet it doesn't work in JavaScript and the flag is not the same across most languages.

Pshemo Over a year ago

OK. You have got the point about JS. You need to use something like [\s\S] or [\d\D] there to simulate DOTALL behaviour, but if you can use this flag instead you should. This will make your regex easier to read which means also easier to maintain.

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