Issues with my regex in java

Question

Hi guys i am trying to figure out a simple regEx from the given text below:

<b>Name:</b> Photomatix.Pro.v4.0.64bit-FOSI<br />

i basically want to output and store only Photomatix.Pro.v4.0.64bit-FOSI i.e. the actual value thats inside the but when i define it like this:

private static final String REG_NAME = "<b>Name:</b>(.*)<br />";

It actually stores and outputs the whole <b>Name:</b> Photomatix.Pro.v4.0.64bit-FOSI<br />

Any ideas on how i can just extract the value given from the above xml text? cheers in advance

If you have only XML to parse, you should try an XML parser instead of regexes. — Colin Hebert
– Colin Hebert, Commented Oct 5, 2010 at 10:44
I've flagged the "use an XML parser instead" comment as spam/offensive - the question is very explicitly regular expression based, i.e. how to obtain a capturing group. — PP.
– PP., Commented Oct 5, 2010 at 10:52

mgamer · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-05 10:42:50Z

6

This should work:

  final String REG_NAME = "<b>Name:</b>(.*)<br />";

        String text = "<b>Name:</b> Photomatix.Pro.v4.0.64bit-FOSI<br />";

        Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(REG_NAME);

        Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(text);

        if (matcher.find()) {
            System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
        }

answered Oct 5, 2010 at 10:42

mgamer

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3 Comments

Andreas Dolk Over a year ago

group(1) does the trick, group(0) is the complete match, which is equal to the OP's "unexpected" result.

Jono Over a year ago

edit: how does it group strings together? i would like to understand the concept of grouping.

mgamer Over a year ago

@jonney: check it out: exampledepot.com/egs/java.util.regex/Group.html

Steve Claridge · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-05 10:47:54Z

1

String r = "/b>(.*)<b";

Pattern p = Pattern.compile( r );
Matcher m = p.matcher( "<b>Name:</b> Photomatix.Pro.v4.0.64bit-FOSI<br />" );

if ( m.find() )
{
  System.out.println( "found: " + m.group(1) );
}

answered Oct 5, 2010 at 10:47

Steve Claridge

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2 Comments

mgamer Over a year ago

You know full well that your answer is incorrect. It will work for a string like "b>Name:</b Photomatix.Pro.v4.0.64bit-FOSI" which is not what joneey expected. My answer is not perfect either!

Steve Claridge Over a year ago

indeed, but I think we gave him enough to work with. We can't know all his possible string inputs anyway.

DerMike · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-05 10:43:42Z

0

(I don't have a Java compiler at hand right now so I cannot verify the answer. Thus this isn't the final answer, but...)

If you really want to do it with regexes, you should take a look at matchers and groups in the Java regex classes.

answered Oct 5, 2010 at 10:43

DerMike

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Comments

virgium03 · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-05 11:51:02Z

0

well, i don't think it is such a good idea to parse an html using regexes, you should use some html java parsers. if you want to use regular expression though, you can check some examples here: Regular Expressions

answered Oct 5, 2010 at 11:51

virgium03

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1 Comment

Jono Over a year ago

i wasnt aware their was any html java parsers.

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