Parse JSON from html tag using Python

Question

I've used BeautifulSoup to get the below snippet from an HTML page. I'm having trouble stripping out just the JSON (after FB_DATA). I'm guessing I need to use re.search, but I'm having trouble with the REGEX.

The snippet is:

<script type="text/javascript">
    var FB_DATA = {
        "foo": bar,
        "two": {
          "foo": bar,
        }};
    var FB_PUSH = []; 
    var FB_PULL = []; 
</script>

Honestly, I don't even know where to start. I hate posting with so little to go on, but i'm just learning and i'm not strong with regex. — Randy
– Randy, Commented May 27, 2014 at 18:50

Sam · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-27 18:57:24Z

6

I'm assuming your main issue is using a .*? when . matches anything but new lines. Using the s dot-matches-newline modifier, you can accomplish this very simply:

(?s)    (?# dot-match-all modifier)
var     (?# match var literally)
\s+     (?# match 1+ whitespace)
FB_DATA (?# match FB_DATA literally)
\s*     (?# match 0+ whitespace)
=       (?# match = literally)
\s*     (?# match 0+ whitespace)
(       (?# start capture group)
 \{     (?# match { literally)
 .*?    (?# lazily match 0+ characters)
 \}     (?# match } literally)
)       (?# end capture group)
;       (?# match ; literally)

Demo

Your JSON string will be in capture group #1.

m = re.search(r"(?s)var\s+FB_DATA\s*=\s*(\{.*?\});", html)
print m.group(1)

edited May 27, 2014 at 18:57

answered May 27, 2014 at 18:51

Sam

20.5k2 gold badges48 silver badges71 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Pavel · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-27 18:51:23Z

0

start with

FB_DATA = (\{[^;]*;)

and see in which cases it's not enough.

answered May 27, 2014 at 18:51

Pavel

7,6022 gold badges33 silver badges43 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Parse JSON from html tag using Python

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related