vb regex string match

Question

Using vb.net using regex how would i recover href and the cost?

I have tried various options, and have just learned that regex can be different depending on language, which means i have wasted 2 days trying to figure it out

<div class="single-album" id="m-1_1184">
<span class="album-time link-text">
<a class="album-link  tag-b b-ltxt-album b-sec-b b-tab-toy"
href="/cx/1.1184"
title="album | 5 cost">13£50</a>
</span>`enter code here`
<span class="separator">|</span>
</div>

stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/… Use HtmlAgilityPack — Tim Schmelter
– Tim Schmelter, Commented May 4, 2015 at 10:30

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:06:35Z

1

I would really advise against using regex to parse HTML. Instead use HtmlAgilityPack.

Then it's simple and safe:

Dim html As String = File.ReadAllText("C:\Temp\html.txt") ' i've used this text file for your input
Dim doc = New HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument()
doc.LoadHtml(html)
Dim aHref As HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlNode = doc.DocumentNode.SelectSingleNode("//a[@class='album-link  tag-b b-ltxt-album b-sec-b b-tab-toy']")
If aHref IsNot Nothing Then
    Dim href As String = aHref.GetAttributeValue("href", "") ' /cx/1.1184
    Dim title As String = aHref.GetAttributeValue("title", "")
    Dim costs As String = title.Split("|"c).Last().Trim()    ' 5 cost
End If

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:06

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answered May 4, 2015 at 10:46

Tim Schmelter

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3 Comments

user4858969 Over a year ago

that looks great code, unfortunately no use to me as I tried to install htmlagiltypack, before trying the regex, just coudnt figure how to install it

Tim Schmelter Over a year ago

You don't need to "install" it, just add the reference to the downloaded dll in your project's references. Maybe you need to make it visible by selecting your project and then at the top click "show all files". stackoverflow.com/questions/4958483/…

Andrew Morton Over a year ago

@user4858969 You can manually add a reference or you can follow the very simple instructions at http://www.nuget.org/packages/HtmlAgilityPack.

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